A CITY MAN’S HOBBY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9398, 19 March 1909, Page 8

A CITY MAN’S HOBBY.

A curious career was disclosed at an inquest on'Mauoli Oiclitira, aged 38, a Greek foreign and colonial commission merchant, carrying on business at Eastctieap and lately residing in Jjoaisyille Road, Upper Tooting, who committed snioide by, drowning himself ,in the Thames. Mr Dennis Oiclitira said the deceased, v/ho was his brother, and himself were in business together. Deceased was a very eccentric man, aud used to advertise for situations as a waiter. He would wait at table lii the evening after he had finished business in the city; that was his hobby. ' ’Witness’ brother Was very much attached to an old lady, but he did : not think there was any love affair. Mrs Bessie Baber stated that she was housekeeper to a doctor’s wife in Ballsvne Road, Wandsworth Oons- * mofl, As the result of an advertisement in a newspaper, the deceaspd gentleman used to visit there aud l . wait at table. The Coroner : “What, an amateur waiter! I have never heard of that before Yes, bemused to wait ou my mistress and her friends, “Did he dress hinaaelf up as a

waiter?”—“No, he wore his private clothes.” , , , , A well-dressed, middle-aged lady, whose fingera, were bedecked with diamond rings, also gave evidence. She would not give he* name or Address pnbliolv, and upon the request of the coroner she wrote them down, on a piece of paper. She stayed that the deceased was ' a'. friend *of hers. He had plenty of money, but waiting at table was a fad of his. threatened suicide, and bad said his head was bursting, and that he felt aa'if he would go mad. Witness told him she should he unable to spend Christmas in London, and this worried him a great deal. The brother, re-called, said deceased was in the habit of carrying plenty of money about with him—generally £2O or £3O in notes and gonld. He was fond of rattling money in his trousers pockets. „He also wore a silver watch. . / . , Only half a crown and a metal watoh with a broken chain were found on the dead man. The brother '“could not say” whether he thought deceased had been robbed. “Suicide whilst of unsound mind was the verdict.