374 74100 STRAND MAGAZINE.

ARTHUR ROBERTS. Borx 1820,

’/fi'*:“\l{lH UR ROBERTS, “thce fun- e\ ) niest man in London,” was born ~1 at Kentish Town, and started life, at about the age at which our first portrait represents him, in a solicitor’s office, where one of his principal dutics was to scrve writs ;3 but his salary not being cqual to his ambition, he decided, with a lawyer’s shrewdness, to cke it out by fulfilling any theatrical engagements—which were chiefly at smoking- concerts—he could obtain after dark. A

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From a Photo. by AGE 2. [ £

nents. He s also extremely fond of yacht- ing, and is a lover of horses, of which he generally keeps four or five. No biography of Mr. Roberts, however brief, can omit to mention that he 1s the mventor of the immortal game of “Spool.”

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lawyer by day, and an entertainer by night, he continued to be for eight years, until, at the age of twenty-five, he finally adopted the stage as a profession. Since that time he has played with enormous success, at first in muslc- halls and afterwards in theatres, creating a succession of characters which caused his audiences to seream with laughter. T1is most notable triumphs have been, perhaps, “ Madame Favart,” “The Old Guard,” “Nadgy,” “lancclot The TLovely,” and “ Joan of Arc.” Mr. Roberts, who 1s, 1f pos- sible, a funnier man off the stage than he 1s on it, lives in a large corner house at Maida Vale with his wife, son, and daughter. He is devotedly fond of cricket, and when on tour always organizes an cleven among his company, which is too strong for most oppc- Froma Tloto. byl pnEoest pav. g