Schaefer vs. Hoppe

"My father was a barber ..." With this curt outline of his genealogy, William Hoppe, billiard "champion of champions," opens his autobiography,* proceeds to tell how he learned to play billiards when he was so small that h' had to stand upon a chair; how he won the world's championship, played before kings, statesmen, presidents; how Mark Twain, that voluble billiard-fan, told him a funny story; how he toured the world with Jacob Schaefer, "the Wizard." Hoppe defeated Jake Schaefer, but the old man trained his son, young Jake, to take revenge. Once, indeed, young Jake defeated Hoppe, took the title, but was defeated in turn after a few months. Except for this brief period, Hoppe, now 37, has been champion for 17 years. In the last chapter of his book he asks the question: "How long can I keep my title?"

Last week, in Chicago, the answer to this question, the epilog to this book, was, to all appearances, written for good. Young Schaefer beat Hoppe. Before a gallery that stared with strained intensity at a green baize table spotted with three ivory spheres, the game began that was to be an epilog, an answer. Schaefer won the bank, missed his shot; Hoppe, attempting a difficult around-the-table shot, failed, too; again Schaefer missed. The gallery shifted uncomfortably; gentlemen regarded one another in amazement. Were these scratchers the two greatest billiard players in the world? Hoppe chalked his cue, made a run of 86. This, the gallery thought, was something like it. The game went on. Neither man was at his best, but Hoppe was the smoother of the two. Then Schaefer got the balls against the cushion, began to run off shots suavely, rapidly. The twitching of his cue was barely perceptible, his head hardly moved; 296 shots he made, stopped. There was no point in scoring any more. He was champion, 400 to 173.

* THIRTY YEARS OF BILLIARDS-Willie Hoppe. Edited by J. E. Crozier-Putnam ($2.00). * Other famed brothers in sport are: Robert and Emil Meusel, Stanley and Harry Coveleskie, Jesse and Virgil Barnes, James and "Doc" Johnston, baseballers; Howard and Robert Kinsey, tennis players; Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko, wrestlers; Benjamin and Joseph Leonard, Peter and John Zivc, Thomas and Michael Gibbons, boxers.