1854
First Contest in a Public Hall. May 13th, Malcolm Hall, Syracuse, N. Y.—Caroms with unrestricted hazards (pocketings), stake unknown. Joseph N. White, 500; Geo. Smith, 484.
This was not technically a public contest, admission having been by invitation only. Mixed caroms and hazards were last played professionally on a six-pocket table by two lads in a hotel billiard-room on Third Avenue, N. Y. City, in 1865, for a stake of $50 a side. The winner is living, but has long been out of billiards. Maurice Daly, then sixteen, was loser.