Rufe Eisele's Billiard Balls

"Bowdoes it come thatyou have red, white and blue billiard baJls?" asked the whip salesrnan of Rnfe EiscJe, who the Brant House at Sloop Creek. "pis kinder extraordinary, ain't it?" said Rnfe. "Bnt somchow or aiiother extraordinary tbings happen down here. You wouldn't believe it if I told you that I had them balls afore I had the bable. I bought the table for 840 from Bart Greenleaf, and he wou it at araffie np to Asbury. That table's wnth plum 250, and the balls is just a gift of nature - come by a special act of Providence, you might say. You never seft balls just like them before. They ain't ivory, and they ain't celluloid. If they was celluloid, they wouldu't be here now. They ain't this patent putty coicposition that theymake cheap pool balls of either. Jnst what they are I ain't preparcd to say, and I 'speet that the nature of the material these were made from is chacged from what it was at first "ï'll teil yon hovv I come by 'em, aud fou'll learn what extraordinary thinga aan happen down hereaways. A year ugo the 13th of June there was a party of Brooklyn fellows down here, and they set out for a good time:. They fetched cards and chips with them and 'lowed to play poker until 4 o'clock in the morning and then go fishing. I sot up with them and too'k a hand in the game. We were setting at that round table, and it was pushed over in the corner between them Windows. 'Long about 12 o'clock I was mising drmks for the crowd, when I heard thunder and ïnutterin and see flashes of lightning. I told them fellows tliey'd better move away from the Windows, but they laughed at me. "One fellow had been winning right straight along. He had a big pile of chips in front of him, and they was in his way. So he bcgan stacking them up according to color and laid 25 of eaeh kind in stacks side by side on the window sill. Meanwhile the storm broke and the lightning played bob around the house. The party got kinder scared and jumped up promptly when I proposed to all to go to the bar and have a drink. I was just setting'out the glasses when there was a swish of lightning that turned thewhole air blue. I didn't hear any thunder, bat I see big bal Is of fire dancing round the room, and one of them hit me right on the breast and knocked me down behind the bar. Bvery man in the room was hit plumb in the gizzard with a ball of fire and knocked flat. I don't know how long it was befox'e we all come to and took our drinks, but I do know that the storm had passed. I lookcd round and was surprised to find that nothiug had been hurt. After the fellows all took their drinks they wanted to play poker again and started for the table. There the fellow that had won most of the chips put up a holler about them. He said somebody had got 'em. "I didn't b'lieve that possible, and i told him that the lightning had probably knocked them offen the window sill. Then he looked on the floor under the table and said, 'I don't see no chips, but here's abilliard ball,' and he picked up a red ball. Now I never had a billiard ball in my house before, and I thought that he was playing a trick on me until one of the other fellows moved his feet and rolled a white ball out on the floor. I picked it up and found it was hot. A minute later Ike Hicks gave a whoop and held up a blue billiard ball, saying it was the first he ever seen in his life. Then it come to us all at once that the lightning had struck them poker chips and melted 'em into solid balls. P'raps they ain't quite as regular as some, but they answer all our I poses. "■