WHEN IT PAYS TO BE AN IDIOT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19247, 26 February 1925, Page 5

WHEN IT PAYS TO BE AN IDIOT

CLAUDE DAMPTER’S STORIES. “It happened in Johannesburg. South Africa that I adopted the name of ‘Professional Idiot,’ ” said Mr. Claude Darnpier to a “Chronicle” reporter. “I had given my services free at a sacred concert in aid of a brother ‘mummer’ who had been badly handled by misfortune. As it was Sunday night, the entertainment had been billed as a sacred concert, although the ‘turns' we put on were much the same as on an ordinary week night programme. A number of those of us who had appeared in the concert were subpocned in a prosecution against the promoters. AVe were also commanded to bring the ‘makeup’ xvo had worn at the concert. I accordingly, with one or txvo others, dressed up in stage regalia and walked doyvn the street from the hotel to the courthouse, about half a mile. In the course, of cross-examination in the witness-box I was asked what was my profession T On the spur of the moment I replied: ‘I am a professional idiot.’ I explained that. I yvas not one of the idiots who back horses, but yvas an idiot to make money. From thence onward 1 became known as the ‘Professional Idiot.’ Our appearance in Court, dressed up in stage costume, turned the proceedings, more or less, into a farce-, so the case was quashed.” Mr. Dumpier appears at His Majesty’s this evening.