"In India, as in most places, it may be said there are tables and tables, and very odd contrivances some of them are, too. "Slow" is hardly the word with which to describe some of them; and faulty cushions, pockets which, having an antipathy to the performer, decline to "draw," and often a cracked bed, are amongst their attributes The cloth is frequently threadbare, and should it be patched by the local "duzzi" (tailor) with a rough material which does not match, playing will be a matter of enormous difficulty."
"In India, as in most places, it may be said there are tables and tables, and very odd contrivances some of them are, too. "Slow" is hardly the word with which to describe some of them; and faulty cushions, pockets which, having an antipathy to the performer, decline to "draw," and often a cracked bed, are amongst their attributes The cloth is frequently threadbare, and should it be patched by the local "duzzi" (tailor) with a rough material which does not match, playing will be a matter of enormous difficulty."
http://www.eaba.co.uk/mags/bm/1913/09/provincialBilliardsInIndia.html