Early on, billiards struggled to gain respect

Billiards was both an “exercise and amusement” for U.S. President John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, who was regarded as America’s first “cue sports” chief executive. 

Adams was inaugurated as the sixth president in March 1825, and soon thereafter, he picked up a billiard table at a second-hand store and had it set up inside the White House. 

On top of this story is Shannon Selin, born in Biggar, Saskatchewan, Canada, a top-flight historian and writer. She said Adams was “a hardworking and studious man, and the game was a pleasant distraction.” He would typically play billiards for an hour or two each evening before retiring.

John Quincy Adams

 In 1826, U.S. Rep. Stephen Van Rensselaer of New York filed a report in Congress that brought into question expenses for “furnishings” at the White House. Circled were outlays of $50 for the pre-owned billiard table, $43.44 for new cloth and repair work as well as $11 for cues and billiard balls. 

Adams asserted that the report was incorrect. He had paid the sum of $104.44 out of his own pocket, plus another $23.50 for “new chessmen.” 

That was only the beginning, however, of an onslaught of criticism directed toward Adams, according to Selin. He was an easy target for zealous editorialists. One wrote: 

“Can it be that the President’s House is to be converted into a place where gamblers may idle away an hour? Is it right that the President, as the head and father of moral, religious…people, should set such an example? 

Adams was repeatedly chastised for turning the White House into a “gambling den.” He was unable to deflect the barbs, which were encouraged by his opponent in the 1928 election, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. 

“The issue of the billiard table contributed…to Adams’ defeat in 1828,” Selin said.

 Moving forward, the archivist at The White House Museum said that Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th president, also enjoyed a game of billiards…which he described in 1861 as a “health inspiring, scientific game, lending recreation to the otherwise fatigued mind.” 

The game’s undisputed greatest spokesperson was author Mark Twain of Missouri (born in 1835 as Samuel Langhorne Clemens). He declared billiards to be “the best game on Earth.” 

 Twain’s favorite time was when he was doting on his cats (as many as 32) while playing billiards. He wrote:

 “One (kitten) liked to be crammed into a corner pocket of the billiard table – and there he watched the game…and obstructed it…by the hour, spoiling many a shot by putting out his paw and changing the direction of a passing ball.”

Twain opened a speech in 1906 with a story about his time in Virginia City, Nev., working as “an underpaid newspaper reporter,” from 1862-64. “One day a stranger came to town and he looked like an easy mark,’ Twain said. A game was arranged. 

“‘Just knock the balls around a little so that I can get your gait,’ he said; and when I had done so, he remarked: ‘I will be perfectly fair with you. I’ll play you left-handed.’” 

“I determined to teach him a lesson,” Twain said. “He won first shot, ran out, took my half-dollar, and all I got was the opportunity to chalk my cue.” 

“If you can play like that with your left hand,” I said, “I’d like to see you play with your right. ‘I can’t,’ he said. ‘I’m left-handed.’”