NOTHING PLEASE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 409, 19 December 1932, Page 2

NOTHING PLEASE

MAN EARNS LIVING BY PROFESSIONAL GRUMBLING Mr. James Marlowe, of Camden Road, North London, is a prof essional fault-finder. He grumbles and complains all day long, from day to day, month after month. His job would make thousands of people go green with envy. Always a meticulous careful s'ort of person, Mr. Marlowe found that wherever he went there was something wrong; in cafes where he ate, in the streets, in the theatres he saw things which should not be. Everywhere! Mr. Marlowe, instead of going home and writing to the newspapers about these things, wrote to the people responsible, and told them all about it. He wrote to the Underground Railway authorities and told them how it was pussible to alight at a certain station without presenting a ticket. He wrote to a large firm of caterers telling them the shape of the tea cups they had adopted at one of their branches would lose them money; it was impossible to drink out of them without spilling the tea. "I merely used to -do these things as a matter of principle," Mr. Marlowe said in an interview, 'but when I became unemployed I pointed out in my letters that if the suggestion was of use to them they could remunerate me in proportion to the value they placed on it. "I noticed one day that a, large eleetric sign in Piccadilly was not working properly, and. told the company it was false eeonomy to spend money on ~a sign that nobody could read. They rewarded me quite handsomely. I just keep my eyes open wherever I go, and ean rely on a few good grouches every day." But Mr. Marlowe's correspondents are not always as courteous. When, for instance, he wrote to a promin"ent ;public figure and told him his bowler hat was several years oqt of date, that person sent back a reply which was not very polite. "But," said the redoubtable Mr. Marlowe, "he doesn't wear it any longer."