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Show BILLIARDS ENJOYING STEADY POPULARITY Ancient Game Seems to Be Flourishing Flour-ishing More Than Ever. Pastime Calls for Most Painstaking Effort and Nicest Judgment Balk line and Three-Cushion Games Are ths Most Favored. .V. While other pastimes have flourished flour-ished and faded at Intervals during the last ten years, the game of bll-liurds bll-liurds has enjoyed steadily growing popularity, and it Is likely that today this game has more devotees than any game save, perhaps, baseball, writes William F. Kirk. Billiards Is one game where youth Is not always served, though, of course, youth has Its advantages here as elsewhere. else-where. Many of the cleverest billiard nlnyers In the country are middle-aged men, and the number of old men who play the game well is astonishing. Many games are far too strenuous for many men, but billiards Is not a strenuous game. It Is a game, however, how-ever, that calls for the mot painstaking painstak-ing effor ' nicest Judgment Jao Schaeftr. and deftness of touch, and when oris has mastered a cue sufficiently to make a real headway at the game, It becomes be-comes a most absorbing pustime. As In other Internationally known sports, America stands out as the home of the greatest number of great bll-llurd bll-llurd experts, but America has dozens of players who play the game with the touch of masters. The scientific game of balkllne and Its more spectacular cousin, three-cushion three-cushion billiards, are constantly growing grow-ing In favor throughout the nation, and new stars with the skill of young Jake Schaefer, Welker Cochran or Willie Hoppe are sure to come forth. And In the meantime the game la the daily recreation of hundreds of thousands who have no championship aspirations, but who love tiie game, nevertheless |