By Gavin Macdonald.
Everybody has seen Mr. Dan Leno—King Humorist of the variety stage. Or if they haven't seen him, they have heard of him.
As a singer, comedian, and grotesque actor he is incomparable. As a cricketer he dwarfs the reputation of the mighty W. G. to mere nothingness.
Mr. Dan Leno is a modest, retiring man. In a general way he practises in his back yard, and confines his matches to the prescribed area of the lawn-tennis plot at the rear of his house. He says he has done well in one sphere, and he spurns the suggestion that he should enter another.
There is only one thing that will wean him from his resolution, and in this the members of his profession resemble him to a man. In the cause of charity they may be relied upon to throw all objections aside.
It was at a charity match played recently at Dulwich, in aid of a local pension fund, that I had the pleasure of witnessing the most remarkable exhibition of cricket it has ever been my lot to witness.
It was advertised as a one-day match between an eleven of local players captained by Colonel Dalbiac, M.P., and an eleven of eccentric cricketers, known as Danites, under the captaincy of Mr. Dan Leno.
MR. LENO AT THE WICKET.
The latter team was composed of the following gentlemen, all more or less well known to fame—Messrs. Dan Leno, Eugene Stratton, Harry Randall, the Brothers MacNaughton, Pastor, Glennister, Cobbett, Joe Elvin, Griffiths, and Tressider.