On the night of last April 3d a noted Billiard Tournament came off at Irving Hall, New York, between two champion billiard players, for $500, a side. The game lasted from eight o'clock in the evening till four o'clock in the morning. The reporter says:—
"The attendance was somewhat of the composite order, consisting of divines, lawyers, merchants, clerks, professional billiard players, horse jockeys, gamblers, and sporting men generally. The affair was rather67select, as far as appearances went, and at no time during the evening was there the slightest confusion or disturbance. Among the celebrities present were the following persons:—Henry Ward Beecher, Simeon Draper, Isaac A. Bell, Hiram Woodruff, Judge Mc Cunn, Capt. Rynders, Theodore E. Tomlinson, Neil Bryant, James Lingard, Thomas Stone, of this city; Ralph Benjamin and Chris Bird, of Philadelphia; Philip Tieman, of Cincinnati; L. Fox, of Rochester, and J. B. Riley, of Detroit."
Truly these are strange times, when popular ministers can stay in a billiard gambling hall till four o'clock in the morning, and the professed church of Christ pass it by unnoticed.