The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-12-15
In New York
BY PAUL HARRISON

successful men with one or tHe oldest jobs about town is Anthony Thiebault. MT Thiebault is a professional taster; not just Q campler of wines, but of anything. Cigar makers hire him to pass on new blends and bakers ask him to come around to tell them whether to put little more vanilla in their cake icings. He likes to taste tea, coffee and wine best or all. but doesn't pretend to know as much about vintages as some or the European professionals. But
 he does know how the American palate will respond to different wines.
 About 20 years ago MT Thie-
 bault was a cashier in big restau. rant. and after he discovered that the chef was not too temperament tal a fellow he began suggesting changes in the flavorings of dishes.
 His ideas made the dishes so popular that Thiebauit realized he was wasting ms talent, so he went into the tasting business for himself. Now he gets $100 for a few
 minntes work. Or did until he signed up with a wine and liquor imnortine company. One of the ideas he had while sampling some hottled goods was to make ice creams favored with cordials. The suggestion was sold, and MT Ihle- bauIt will realize a big royalty II the scheme succeeds.
 |
 "Talk" of the Town Tasting is doubtless a natural talent. but for sheer ingenuity the odd -job honors go to MT Alex
 ander Jacoby. He conducts lah.
 pi,age exchange. Not a linguis' himself. he realized that there are lots of newly arrived foreigners m New York who are anxious to learn English, and almost as many Americans who want to master Russian. French, Spanish or some | other togue. So he moved lol of tables and chairs into DE room on the edge of Greenwich Village. sent out announcements and soon had plenty of business The customers teach each otner For a nominal registration rec q Japanese busboy and a YanKee clerk in an importing house can ! sit down and swap words and in-
 struction in writing and reading Sometimes, when there's an oeu
 number fo clients, MT Jacopy takes n lesson himself, but by this | time he has experimented with so many languages that he can't re-
 member much about any Of them
 
 Greeters Pay Him
 1 Another entrepreneur is griz- | zled Torkel Helgesen. He trades
 nn the welcoming instinct which seems to be part of the naures ol aIi New Workers. When he came to this country 25 years ago he l bought a launch and began ferry ing to and from ships anchored in the lower bay. But people be- | gan to charter his boat so 0ften
 to greet friends on incoming liners that finally he went into the busi- ness exclusively. Now his boat is crowded almost every day Win about 20 people, at $1 q head
 They chug down the bay to where | the liners anchor for awhile or Quarantine, circle the ships q rev l times while his passengers wave
 and yell to their friends and reia-
 tives, then scoot back to the pier
 in Brooklyn in time to welcome the voyagers again as they leave | the ships. MT Helgesen reckons
 his little craft has greeted more
 travellers than the city's officia
 welcoming tug, Macon.
 1 Getting into the lower wage
 brackets of the city's oldest Job. men, consider the task of FranR
 Gordon, who does nothing but re.
 move wads of chewing gum from
 Radio City's vast Music Hall When the last customer has quit. ted the theater at night. Gordoi
 goes to work with scraping tooil and chemicals. During especiall. busy weeks he has an assistan who merely looks for the gum ane m then reports its location to tn' master remover. They harves about 200 pounds of used spear
 mint and pepsin a week, and Cor
 don is troubled because he can
 think of any use for 1t.