PROFESSIONAL GRUMBLER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21828, 15 December 1932, Page 14

PROFESSIONAL GRUMBLER

FINDING FAULT FOR A LIVING Mr James Marlowe, of Camden road. North London, is a professional faultfinder. He grumbles and complains all day long, from day to day, month after mouth. His job would make thousands of people go green with envy. Always a meticulous, careful sort 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. Everywere! , 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 possible to alight at a certain station without presenting a ticket. He wrote to a large firm of caterers telling them that 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 electric sign in Piccadilly was not working properly, and told the company it, was false economy to spend money on a sign that nobody could read. They rewarded me quite handsomely. 1 just keep my eyes open wherever I go and can rely on a few good grouches every day.”. But Mr Marlowe’s correspondents arc not always as courteous. When, for instance, lie wrote to a prominent public figure and told him his bowler hat was several years out of date, that person sent back a reply which was not verypolite. “ But,” said the redoubtable Mr Marlowe, “he doesn’t wear it any longer.”