Show Early Billiards In Franco the game of billiards did not come thoroughly into fashion until tho reign of Louis XIV with whom it was a groat favorite fa-vorite The Grand Monarquo suffered much with indigestion and his physicians advised him to indulge daily in billiards as affording him means of gently and salutary exercise A billiard table of tho style of the day was accordingly erected in a room near the CEil do Besot at Versailles In this saloon the courtiers used to congregate and applaud the royal players canons in his matches with tho Duke de Villeroi and M De Chamillard both of whom were far superior supe-rior to tho king although they were too loyal to defeat his majesty over often Mme do Maintenon though she would have greatly preferred playing brolan was obliged to attend on these occasions and revenged re-venged herself while acting as marker by unmercifully quizzing tho royal player when his strokes were not successful Later on however when he was more advanced in years his adroit wife managed to keep Louis XIV to herself by giving theatrical representations repre-sentations in her own apartments thus ousting oust-ing billiards from their place of honor in the monarchs predilections During his reign and indeed until tho present century tho billiard table by no means offered the perfection perfec-tion which it has now attained The elasticity of the cushions was nil the pockets were so wide as to render many strokes impossible and the cues wero devoid de-void of tips or precedes unknown until invented by Mangin some sixty years ago Screws and side were utterly impracticable im-practicable Up to the year isle tables wero square on heavy clumsy looking legs and were not the ornamental mathematically mathematical-ly correct objects they are now |