The Game.

Jamestown Weekly Alert, Jamestown, 1883-09-28, p.2

Summary

Short item in the Jamestown Weekly Alert reporting that H. A. Mullane played a finger-billiards exhibition match at Murphy's saloon for a $15 purse against five Jamestown gentlemen furnished cues. Mullane ran 52 points early; the game was stopped and converted to a skill exhibition. No first name is given for "Murphy" — the saloon is referenced by surname only. The user's filename ("Maybe Patrick Murphy's saloon 1883") flags the open question of whether this saloon-keeper is family.

Narrative

H. A. Mullane played a match game of finger billiards at Murphy's saloon for a fifteen-dollar purse against five Jamestown gentlemen who were given cues. Mullane quickly cornered both reds and ran up fifty-two points before the crowd, finding the game stale, agreed to forfeit the stakes and let him give a free exhibition instead; no bets were laid during the exhibition, though Mullane made tempting invitations.

“the flip fingered gentleman got the two reds in one corner of the table where he kept them until he had made fifty-two points”
“the most prominent feature of which was a paying quantity of suckers who would bet on 'another man's game'”

AI-generated (claude-sonnet-4-6). Verify against the transcription before quoting.

Also mentioned

H. A. Mullane · billiards_player
Murphy · saloon_proprietor
No first name given. "Murphy's saloon" only. Surname + region (Jamestown ND, 1883) is namesake_only under the confidence rule. The user's filename hypothesises Patrick Murphy but the clipping does not name him. Cross-check against Jamestown city directories 1882–1885.

Places

Jamestown, North Dakota (primary)
Dakota Territory / North Dakota (context)

Themes

saloon_culture

Source type

news_item

Transcription

transcription: complete · confidence high

# Transcription — Jamestown Weekly Alert, 1883-09-28, p.2 **Source**: Jamestown Weekly Alert (Jamestown, Dakota Territory), Friday 28 September 1883, p.2. **Status**: Complete. --- **The Game.** Mr. H. A. Mullane played a match game of finger billiards at Murphy's saloon last evening for a purse of fifteen dollars with five Jamestown gentlemen who were furnished cues. At an early stage of the game the flip fingered gentleman got the two reds in one corner of the table where he kept them until he had made fifty-two points. By this time the game grew rather stale and the crowd agreed with the five players to give up the stakes and permit the expert to give an exhibition of his skill, which he did. No betting was indulged in, although some tempting invitations were extended by the expert. As a finger billiardist Mr. Mullane is pretty well up to the average. With a cue he is very good being able to make all the way from one to two hundred at a run. Taking everything into consideration the game and exhibition was quite entertaining, the most prominent feature of which was a paying quantity of suckers who would bet on "another man's game."

Open questions