Living, and Other Rooms 



157 



Not infrequently the den is made an alcove opening from it, and often, too, the 

 billiard room is really the smoking room. This is, however, a matter of taste. 



In the construction of the floor, deafening paper should be used the 

 regular floor deafening if possible and the usual tracker laid around the table to 

 deaden the sound may be of considerable value in this direction. Care should 

 be exercised that 

 ample cue room be 

 allowed for on all 

 sides of the table. It 

 is rather awkward 

 to be obliged to ram 

 your guest in the 

 nose while making 

 a cross shot. The 

 best way to manage 

 the seats is to have 

 them on a raised 

 platform on both 

 sides of the room. 

 This platform 

 should be one step 

 high and from 3 to 

 4 feet wide, to ac- 

 commodate perma- 

 nent seats, settles or 

 chairs, as the case 

 may be. The front 

 of this p 1 a tf o r m 



should be fully a cue length from the edge of the table. The windows should 

 come well to the ceiling and have a good lighting area, as it is usually in the 

 daytime, during bad weather, that the room is most used. 



With the side seats, a fireplace at one end and the entrance through the den 

 at the other, the billiard room is about as simply and conveniently arranged as is 

 possible. Cue racks can be placed on either side of the entrance or by the fire- 

 place. These and other details are readily understood by the average player. 



To our English cousins should be given the credit of the morning room. To 

 those living much in the open air this rough-and-ready living room or informal 

 drawing room is of great value. It can be used at all times of the day, by all of the 

 family, and should have direct connection w r ith the open air. It should be 

 plainly and comfortably furnished with such furnishings as a little dirt will not 

 harm. One is apt to track mud, and this should be considered. During w r et 

 w r eather the morning room becomes almost indispensable. Leather chairs are 

 excellent owing to the ease with which they are cleaned, and they are usually 

 strong as well, which is another advantage, as the morning room and its contents 

 are apt to receive considerable hard usage. A fireplace should be installed, if such 

 a thing be possible, owing to the comfort derived from it during wet weather. It 



Parlour at Salem, Mass., Suggestive of the comfortable times of the old East India traders 



