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Show I! fipppk in i! ahtcmriu V MA lk N CLASS BY ( JgfeX t- ( woro no "Three Cushion Billiards?" Ashs Native at Exhibition, "Why,You Are Playing on All Four Around the Table." II j' Z'Cb DXOLULU Is a paradise for I So says R. B. Benjamin, ft y business manager for "Willie J J Hoppe, -who holda tho . 77' J balk-line billiards. Benja- mln and Hoppe recently rc- tnrned from the Hawaiian la Lands, where exhl- bltlona of Hoppe's marvelous skill were given ', before audiences of Hawaiian sport lovers In tho capital city of the archipelago. "VTlth Hoppo and Benjamin there were In the party Mrs. . Hoppe and Kojl Yamadi, the great Japanese bllllardlst. , Hoppe and his companions concluded their l annual tour with the trip to the mid-Pacific Islands after spending the winter giving exhibitions exhi-bitions In this country. They crossed over to Honolulu in the first week of April and spent five weeks there. Hoppe and Yamadi gave repeated re-peated exhibitions before the voilous clubs and organizations of Honolulu and once crossed over to Hilo and played for the people of that nelgh- boring Island. I . The climate, the life of the people, and the . topography of the Islands all make for sport, j according to Benjamin, and sport Is the great u"b me me oi tne natives. f The climate of the Islands Is warm. Tho group Is situated In the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a lino with the central part of Xorth-em Xorth-em Mexico. Tropical In temperature, the heat fl of the islands Is nevertheless one that Is pleas- ant to live in. No terrific humidity fills the air to make humanity swelter under such condl- : tlonz as wc know In the temperate cities of America. The nights are cool and afTord relief j from the slight discomfort of the midday nun. ' Twenty years ago, when Benjamin first visited tho Hawaiian Islands, they held nothing but charms, he said. Now, with tho coming of the United States Government, Honululu has as- L sumed the grim aspects of a military station and has taken on many of the attributes of a commercial town. There are about SOOO Americans Amer-icans among the 80,000 souls who populate Honolulu. Hon-olulu. About half the people aro Japanese; some Chinese live there; and the native Hawallans i have come to form the minority of the populace. popu-lace. But, despite the commercial and military life, which has come upon the gentle islands, and the variety of the population, the native love of sport and outdoor activity still remains. Business Busi-ness and soldiery are forgotten, and the confusion confu-sion of races Ignored often enough and long enough for tho place still to be charming. And now Benjamin, on his second trip, found the Islands Just as charming, but from a slightly different cause. To make the sporting life of Honolulu more gripping, "a singular political chance has placed In office as mayor a man who Is In love with every branch of sport which the city affords. Mayor Lane of Honolulu stands 6 feet 3Jnche, is a fine specimen of Hawaiian manhood, and Is a typical representative of his race. His big body holds a heart that is correspondingly as big, and towards sport he has an affection In which all his citizens share with equal zest. Hoppe went to Honolulu to give the people mere an exhibition of the great skill which has made him master of the billiard world for years. His game and his exhibition and the profit which the natives derived therefrom, worked a great good fortune for the billiard lovers in Hawaii. It was the first time that the Hawall-ans Hawall-ans had ever had the opportunity to see such a famous expert at the game, and the Interest that they took over Hoppe's presence may be , aptly Illustrated by an anecdoto that Benjamin tolls about Charley Marquis, the millionaire ofn.ee eupply company owner of Honolulu. Marquis handled In a business way all tho billiard supplies which the island used. Consequently Conse-quently he was one of tho men to whom tho visitors turned to transact much of tholr business busi-ness while there. One evening of an exhibition tho Hawallans were filing into tho place wher Hoppe and Yamadi were to play. The players were to come in the mayor's automobile In company com-pany with the mayor, Mrs. Hoppe and the prince of the island. Charley Marquis was at me scene ol tne exhibition, and as tne nan uc-gan uc-gan to fill up and the bllllardlsts had not yet appeared, his excitement began to mount. Finally he could stand the delay no longer and he seized the phone to call Hoppe. He got th bllllardlst on the wire, and before Hoppe could realize what was happening, Marquis was beseeching be-seeching the visitor in the singularly vocallo language of the natives to hurry and come to play. Hoppe could neither understand tho man nor stop him. Finally, Benjimm heard tho loud and excited tones of tho millionaire and asked him who he was talking to. Wh8n Benjamin Informed Mar-quia Mar-quia that ho had been talking to Hoppo In htt natlvo tongue, tho Hawaiian sheepiihly admit, ted: "Oh, I forgot; but 1 was o excited, and Mr. Hoppo did not come, that I wanted to hurr him." Hoppe played an exhibition at the Commercial Commer-cial Club. After the exhibition the whole party adjourned to danco in the club's ballroom. Tho Commercial Club is the best club In town, ac cording to Bonjamln s opinion, uesiacs mis club, the Y. M. C. A. is a flno Institution, with a beautiful billiard room, which contains six tables. It nlso has an Indoor swimming pool supplied constantly with running water and entirely en-tirely refilled dally. The University Club is another an-other of the leading clubs of Honolulu, and, In i addition to these, tho Jnpanoso have tholr own club in tho city. In speaking about the clubs, Benjamin men- 1 tlonod a peculiar thing about tho night llfo of i Honolulu. Promptly at midnight all the hotels, ' clubs, and amusement places close up. And 1 with their closing, tho scone of Honolulu's ac- i tlvltles moves out to tho beach at TValkikl. 1 HOPPE'S trip to Honolulu produced a. quick- 1 ened interest in the game of billiards there. Leaving San Francisco with the table which I 1?. Q. BFMJAMIM. won first prize at the Frisco fair, the exhibition of the party had caused the table to be sold for $1000 before they were hardly there. But. aside from the Interest inevitably accom- panylng a player of Hoppe's fame, there was the spectacle which the great bllllardlst always presents. Even In America. Hoppo is one of the greatest athletes before the public eye. The Honolulu Bulletin called him the Ty Cobb of billiards. The champion has never smoked, drank, nor indulged In Irregular habila. Ho sleeps well and Hvos a temperate, regular life. Hoppe Is never "oft his game." All ho does Is play the game; he has no worry of the business end of hl trip, and nothing disturbs the steadiness of his delicately deli-cately balanced nerves. According to a palmist of Now York, who examined the hands of Hoppe, the lines of his palm reveal a delicacy of touch and fineness of feeling which even the famous musician Pader-owskl Pader-owskl did not possees. With such a visitor, it was not to bo wondered at that the natives of Hawaii should become wildly excited over his presence and wine (figuratively (fig-uratively speaking) and dine him to the extent that the last lap of his tour was a grand vacation vaca-tion for him. Hoppe's visit was a great revelation to tho people thero and served to sot aright many rather curious notions which they had regarding billiards. The repetition of some of Benjamin's anecdotes will show Just tho stage of advancement advance-ment in which the Hawallans were and what such an exhibition could do for sport even in "Sport's Paradise.'! ' XTTHILE Benjamin was in tho office of the only billiard supply dealer in Honolulu, or tho islands for that matter, a man camo in to sell tho proprietor, the same excitable Charloy Marquis, Mar-quis, some billiard balls. Marquis called in his billiard expert, Harry, and upon getting Harry's favorablo opinion with regard to tho balls bought three acts from tho stranger for WO.' thinking that ho was getting a great bargain In .... o0 marquis inquired If tho man could supply him with any more, and tho man promptly promised to return with half a dozen Bets tho next day, Benjamin witnessed tho transaction and observed ob-served at one, that tho balls were undersized jnd thoroughly unreliable. Tho U0 Tt which farquls had purchased were probably not worth 0 cents in Now york ftnd Benjamfn knew t However, not wishing to offend Marquis" bJf ,css ability, and at the same time Srln to" ,-arn the proprietor against buying any more Benjamin suggested that his friend had better" TS STad bnekdn0W,nff ?- Then Harry, the billiard", he conversation with the declaration: ' ; No. 1, Mrs. Hoppe; 2, Willie Hoppe; ? 3, R. G. Benjamin; 4, Mayor Lane of ; Honolulu; 5, koji Yamadi. Photo taken in Honolulu. . ,( ii K "No, no,, Mr. Benjamin, we never get green ? ivory nere. The only kind we ever see is wmta f; and red." THE same Harry had never heard of a balk-line balk-line marker, a frame affair which marks with chalk a line around tho table. Hoppe was I going lo give an exhibition of balk-lino billiard: L und lienjamln set about to find a marker to set ' off the table with. Benjamin asked Horry for f the balk-line marker. But Harry had no more (' Ideo what Benjamin meant by the term than If Y It had been In Green. Benjamin went Into a description of the marker and explained Its slra- pie construction to the billiard expert. I "Oh." Harry replied, "we've got ne of those I down at the store, but we keep it to measure I the billiard table cloth. And since the cloth h I always cut to size when we get It, we have J never, used ths thing."' I "Then run along-, Harry," Benjamin ordered, i "and bring up the cloth measurer." A3AIN. on another occasion, Benjamin aa r nounccd at one of Hoppe's exhibitions that, ' at the next exhibition, which was scheduled, Hoppe and his traveling partner. Koll Yamadi, ' would demonstrate the game of three-cushion t billiards. Accordingly, tho sporting men of the f city assembled fhe following evening to see this '; game demonstrated. After the game had been in progress for some time, one of the clubmen approached Benjamin and remarked that he had understood the announcement an-nouncement to have stated that a three-cushion :i game would be played. ' Benjamin Informed him he was right in his '. supposition. Then the Hawaiian shrugged his shoulders and said, as ho turned away: "Very well, but the table they aro using has ... cushions on all four sides." i ' $: H-VRRY. the billiard expert, afforded still more f- amusement for Benjamin and Hoppe. To j- Benjamin, Harry modestly confessed that he r was quite a billiard player. In fact, he said, t- whlle he was not quite as good as Hoppe, he, nevertheless, felt confident that he could give the champion a good run. But, ho did not fall to , add, he probably could not do It then for he had not played any billiards for two years. And only a little while later, when Benjamin f desired to e-xatnlne a set of balls which reposed in Marquis' show window, Harry asked, upon ? being requested to fetch the set: "Set? Do you mean tho two whites and tha red?" Benjamin says that, as a bllllardlst, Harry Was In nn lltH nlnao V.t Vilmeair I IT was this sort of lack of knowledge which Hoppe's trip served to overcome. His wonderful won-derful execution and his consistently perfect exhibitions opened tho eyes of tho natives. For tho five wooks which the party sojourned In Honolulu they were the center of attraction everywhere. Tho sport pages gave the most prominent part of the paper to tho presenco of tho visitors. Th two Japaneso papers carried columns of news and pictures of Hoppo and Yamadi. Benjamin has saved all the newspaper clippings of the trip and hns some of tho reports from tho Japanesa papers. Ho confessed that ho did not know what tho queer letters of tho Nlpponeso meant, but ho Bald ho knew they had something to do with his principal slnco thoy accompanied the plo-tures. plo-tures. Tho masso shots In particular oponed tho eye of tho peoplo who had novor soon anything lUc thom before. In tho Japaneso clubs tho roes bors exhibited a fondness for pocket billiards? but In tho othor clubs tho tendency ran to what was frequently a porvortcd typo of the thre outhlon and the balk-lino gamo. After Hoppe'B j wonderful demonstrations, tho latter goal cnlnAfl wMaIv in nnnn1n.tK Tho presence of Hoppo, who, Benjamin claim makea more monoy, week In and week out, th&o does Enrico Caruso, the groat opera singer, U will readily bo seen wna tho biggest eporthiff event tho islands had aeon in years. And concerning con-cerning the comparative earning powers of j Caruso and Hoppo, Benjamin adds that Hopp 1h the solo attraotlon, while Caruso Is supported j by wonderful companies which are almost a ;( much of a drawing attraction as Caruso himself. him-self. The trip was equally memorable from tM J tho standpoint of Hoppo and his party. And II when they finally took tholr departure from 11 fair Hawaiian Islands, their Aloha was ll amidBt masses of flowers breathlns tho ro."9 if perfumery of tho country. As tho ship steom i away with tho bllllardlst. genuine regret wellw U into the hearts of all visitors and native alik M |