SHE COULDN'T RECOMMEND IT!

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 10 April 1919, Page 3

SHE COULDN'T RECOMMEND IT!

A man I know met with a funny experience this week. He wanted, like, a good many other people just now, to rent a house in or near Auckland, and applied to a city agent who, fora wonder, actually .had a house on his books to let. It was in a distant suburb, it is true, but my friend said he would go and have a look at it, and asked if he ceuld have the key. The agent said there was someone the premises, leaving the impression on my friend's mind that the " someone " was the owner, so off he went to see the place. A somewhat depressed looking woman of middle-age answered the door. Yes, the house was to let. Would the gentleman like to go over it? The gentleman said he would. He was tolerably satisfied with the place, but thought it as well to ask a few questions about it before cqtrimitting himself. "Was the house thoroughly dry ?" The reply was not encouraging—the house was not very dry. In fact it was quite damp. " Free from from draughts?" "Oh, no. It was full of draughts. A. terrible house for giving colds." " Were there any rats about the place ?" "The house was just swarming with them." That was enough for the would-be tenant. He has a horror of rats, and decided the [ place wouldn't do. So he took his departure. But just before he reached the local railway station on his way back to to town, he enquired at a store whether the lady at No. so-and-so, in such-and-such a street was the owner or the outgoing tenant of the house. "Neither," replied the storekeeper, "just a caretaker. I She and her husband have been living there rent free for the past six or eight months. Then my friend began to account for the milk in the coker-nut. However he didn't bother any further about the house.