BILL BBOKEB 29 BILLINQS Bill of Sight. — A form of entry at the custom-house by which one can land for inspection, in presence of the officers, such goods as he has not had the op- portunity of previously examining, and which, consequently, he cannot accu- rately describe. BILL BBOKER, a financial agent or money dealer, who discounts or nego- tiates bills of exchange, promissory ' notes, etc. BILL FISH, the gar pike or long- nosed gar (lepidosteus osseus), a fish common in the lakes and rivers of the United States; but the name is also given to other fishes. BILLIABDS, a word probably de- rived from old French billiard, "a stick with a curved end"; in English, intro- duced as the name of a game, and made plural. The origin of billiards is uncer- tain. It was brought into fashion by Louis XIV. (middle of 17th century), whose physicians recommended him ex- ercise after eating. Others believe bil- liards to be of English origin. It is mentioned by Spenser ("Mother Hub- bard's Tale," 1591), and by Shakespeare ("Antony and Cleopatra," circa, 1607). The earliest description of billiards in English is in Cotton's "Compleat Game- ster" (1674). The bed of the table was then made of oak; sometimes of marble. Slate beds were first used about 1827. The cushions were stuffed with flock; list was used later. India rubber cush- ions were first manufactured about 1835. The pockets, called hazards, were at first wooden boxes, nets being employed soon afterward. Each player pushed his ball with a mast (now corrupted into mace) , made of heavy wood, and tipped at the broad end with ivory. The game played was the white winning game (single pool), five or three up. A player hold- ing his adversary's ball won an end (or life) ; if he holed his own ball he lost a life (hence the terms winning and los- ing hazards). In addition, a small arch of ivory, called a port, and an ivory peg or king, stood on the table, and certain scores appertained to passing the poi-t and to touching the king. Early in the 19th century, the white winning and losing carambole game, now known as billiards, ousted all other vari- eties in England. It is played on a table 12 feet by 6 feet, surrounded by cush- ions, and having six pockets, of no fixed size, one at each angle of the two ad- jacent squares which form the bed of the table: three balls, diameter 2 l-16th inches, are used. The French have long discarded pockets altogether, and play 3— v«i. II only a cannon game, with larger balls and a smaller table. The Americans added a fourth ball, and in their game cannons and winning hazards counted to the striker, and losing hazards against him. They then abolished the two side pockets, in consequence of their interfering with cannon play (or, as the Americans still spell it, more correctly, carom). Of late years pocket tables have been but little used in the United States, except for pool; and the size of the table has been gradually reduced to 10 feet by 5 feet; balls 2% inches in diameter. The four ball game is now seldom played by experts, the three ball French carom game having superseded it in match play. The increasing skill of leading amateur and professional players in the United States has made it necessary to introduce features that make the game more difficult. In cham- pionship games 14- and 18-inch balk lines are used for this purpose. In the first, lines are drawn 14 inches from each of the four rails, in the second 18 inches. The eight spaces formed by the lines are the balk. In the 14-inch balk-line game, the object balks are in balk whenever both have stopped in a balk space. Only two shots are allowed under these condi- tions, and at least one of the balls must be driven out of balk on the second shot or the player has lost his inning. The 18-inch balk-line game has the same rules as the 14-inch, except that, in the former, only one shot is allowed in balk. Any number of shots may be made in the space outside the balk lines. The United States champion at bil- liards in 1920 was William Hoppe of Brooklyn, N. Y., who for many years had maintained his supremacy over all com- petitors. BILLINGS, a city of Montana, the county-seat of Yellowstone co. It is on the Yellowstone river and on the North- ern Pacific, the Great Northern, and the Burlington and Missouri railroads. It is the center of an important stock-raising district and has been for several years one of the largest inland wool markets of the United States. There are flour and lumber mills, beet sugar factories, foundries, brick yards, and other indus- tries. The city has many handsome buildings, including a public library, opera house, a city hall, and a court house. Pop. (1910) 10,031; (1920) 15,100. BILLINGS. JOHN SHAW, an Amer- ican surgeon and librarian, born in Swit- zerland CO., Ind., April 12, 1839; was graduated at Miami University, in 1857, and the Ohio Medical College, in 1860; ' Cyc
