Mr. Fixit

"You tell him, Mr. Fixit. I stutter." This bromide* has been put to good use by the alert Scripps-Howard newspapers. People metaphorically stutter when in trouble or when annoyed. They like to have some handyman appear when the water is shut off, when a neighbor's garbage is dumped in their backyard, when their cat gets the colic, when there is a hole in the road in front of their garage. Five years ago, Editor H. D. Jacobs of the Scripps-Howard Baltimore Post conceived the idea of making one of his reporters a Mr. Fixit, whose duty would be to solve the troubles of Baltimoreans. Mr. Fixit was first tried out in the more potent Scripps-Howard Cleveland Press, was a success. Then nearly all of the 26 Scripps-Howard newspapers created Mr. Fixits. The present one on the Baltimore Post is George Browning, who is cheered as loudly as the mayor when he appears in public. He has been little-johnny-sunshine to newsboys and millionaires. When the mother of a rabbi was in a delirium and needed absolute quiet, he got the highways bureau to close her street to traffic for ten days, until she recovered.

Mr. Fixit (Eldon F. Roark) on the Memphis Press-Scimitar gave a pint of his blood to a woman who almost died in childbirth, during the Mississippi flood. He brought in two husky firemen to do likewise. ... In one month he obtained jobs for 300 people, later helped start a free municipal employment bureau. . He found homes for stray dogs; reported street cars that had flat wheels.

The city editor (W. D. Frazier) is Mr. Fixit for the Columbus, Ohio, Citizen, although most of the complaints are run down by the city hall reporter. To unravel the red tape between the annoyed citizen and the city authorities is the prime duty of every Mr. Fixit.

But nothing is too trivial for him. In Cincinnati a family was in a stew over the naming of a puppy. In stepped Mr. Fixit (David Austin) of the Cincinnati Post and averted a domestic crisis by naming the puppy "Fixit."

In Fort Worth, Tex., the Press calls its handyman Uncle Panther.

The New York Telegram is in the process of creating a Mr. Fixit. It has been suggested by many an apartment dweller that his first duty be the invention of a noiseless ash can.

Mr. Fixit has been featured in Scripps-Howard advertising during the last fortnight.

*A bromide is any expression that has been used enough to become nauseating. Examples: i) Here's mud in your eye. 2) A little learning is a dangerous thing. 3) Finders keepers, losers weepers. 4) It's a sad world, mates. 5) One foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. Drug store cowboys are fond of bromides.