A Darling Devotee of the Green Cloth and Ivory Spheres--A Difficult Shot.

A beautiful picture of a beauty playing at billiards ls that which our artists present this week. The scene is in a private billiard room, and the situation is taken at the moment when a fair expert with the cue is poised in position for a difficult shot. Patrons of the game will recognize the spirit and faithfulness of the picture. As a means of diversion and healthful exercise, billiards is, of all indoor sports, the game which affords the best opportunity for men and women to unite together in amusing recreation. It is in-door croquet, with more science and skill required for a knowledge of the game, and with less left to the provoking element of luck. Formerly women rarely played except with the "mace," but the multiplication of billiard rooms in private residences has brought about the playing of billiards by women who wield the cue with a dexterity rivaling that of men. Several lady amateurs in the Eastern cities have shown wonderful play even in the difficult three-ball French game and have in "rail play," and delicate nursing rivaled the big scores of some of the masculine professionals. The girls have, of late years, affected all sorts of masculine affairs—hats, ulsters, stand-up collars, vests. If they enter with equal spirit into men's games—bowling, billiards, boating, yachting, etc.—it will be for their physical and mental improvement.

Illustrated Police News, May 5, 1880.