professional cricketer is going downhill, and shortly will have to retire and see his place filled by younger and more active men. Lucky for him if he has been an economical man during his years of success, or if he gets some good position, such as custodian of a cricket ground, which, with his benefit money, will suffice to keep him. There are numerous instances of men retaining their place in first-class cricket up to the age of forty, or even more. The evergreen Tom Emmett, of Yorkshire, who probably never bowled better in his life than in 1886, is considerably Over that age, and W. G. Grace, at the time of writing, is close on forty; but, as a rule, there is considerable labour and sorrow connected with a veteran (at cricket) of thirty-eight or forty who fights against nature to retain his place in first-class cricket. The sinews in the calf and the thigh keep going; the shoulder gets stiffer and stiffer for throwing, or even jerking; there is generally more to carry between the chest and the legs, which prevents the alacrity in stooping for which the fieldsman was once so famous; though perhaps (if a batsman), with a warm day, a good wicket, and every condition in his favour, he will still show his former powers by playing an unexceptionable innings.
The preceding remarks about professionals will show that it is a very dangerous profession for a young man to embark upon, unless his merit is so great that his success in first-class cricket is almost a certainty. We should never recommend any young cricketer who came to us for advice on the subject to enter on the precarious life of a professional unless he had absolutely nothing else to turn his hand to, or appeared to be of the most exceptional merit.
The first-class professional cricketer is usually a well-made, strong-looking man, ranging from two or three and twenty to thirty-five, with agreeable, quiet manners with his superiors on the cricket field, the result, no doubt, of being so constantly in their society. He is generally dressed, we are bound to say, in rather dirty white flannels, and always in the hottest weather wears thick woollen drawers, half an inch of which is generally visible above the waistband of his trousers. He is a great
