Explore "The Sooper Speaking" by Edgar Wallace on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
WHEN people get short on topics of conversation they say to me; "Sooper, you ought to write a book. " And I always say: "I got no time. " Anyway, superintendents of police don't write books. They know too much. And besides, I can't spell. Never could. There was a woman down at Wembley who used to throw my uneducation in my face every time I pinched her husband. He was educated. Wrote five hands, all different. And there was a lady down in Kent who used to report me regular to the Chief Commissioner because I didn't say "my lady" to her-wife of a city sheriff or something. Anyway, she never asked me why I didn't write a book. She knew I was low.
In my young days police constables didn't have to do much more than read and write. The only etiquette they were supposed to know was never to give backchat to their superiors or argue with a man who threatened to punch 'em on the nose. But nowadays, when everybody's gone scientific and lots of policemen speak French, a chap like me would have no chance of promotion.