rom one end of the
country to the other; Charlie Stiles, for years the trusted lieutenant
of Bride and Armstrong, the Grand-Circuit pool sellers; George
'Wheelock, then hailing from St. Louis, but now known as one of the
nerviest of New York's betting brigade; Joe Ullman, who then as now was
a plunger; Johnny O'Neil, Frank Eckert, and many others, the place also
being a favorite resort for the horsemen.

Thomas J. Gallagher was that fall in good form and there were several
members of the book-making fraternity who stood ready to back him
whenever he said the word. I had taken a notion into my head that I
could beat him, nor was I alone in the opinion, for my friend, "Bart"
White, thought the same way. The result was that I agreed to play him a
match 300 points up at the fourteen-inch balk-line game for stakes of
$100 a side. We came together on the afternoon of November 23d at
Slosson's room, and Gallagher won by seventeen points, after a close and
exciting contest, the game standing at 300 to 283 in his favor.

Neither my friends nor myself were satisfied with the result of this
game, during the progress of which I had met with some hard luck, and
which I was certain that I might have played better, and as a result we
at once made another match at the same game to be played that night, the
stakes this time being increased to $150 a side. The game was played in
the presence of quite a crowd of billiard enthusiasts, and again
Gallagher won by 309 to 280, but even this defeat did not convince me
that he was a better player, and the result was still another match of
400 points up at the same game for stakes of $100 a side. This was
played the following evening, and for the third time Gallagher carried
off the honors, the totals showing 400 points for him as against only
183 for myself, and by this time I had come to the conclusion that he
was a "leetle bit" too speedy for me, and that he could look for
somebody else to pay his board-bills.

That same fall Wyman McCreary, of St. Louis, then as now recognized as
one of the strongest amateur players in the country, dropped into
Slosson's room, and the result was that I played him two matches at the
fourteen-inch balk-line game, each one being for $50 a side, winning
both, the score in the first one being 300 to 164, and in the second 300
to 194, my average in the last being 8 14-17, a performance that was at
that time something better than the ordinary. Even as far back as