Inspired by the unexpected success of their first year’s operations, the editorial staff resumed publication in the following summer at that same resort. It proved even more interesting. It contained interviews with fishermen and lobstermen and a story told by an old captain of a fishing schooner, who was spending his declining years in a dilapidated shack by the seashore. That huge, hoarse, bearded giant was always drunk. But in his rare moments of sobriety he was kind, used to give candy to the children and nobody could tell fascinating sea adventure stories better than he did. Mikey managed to catch him in such a mood and the magazine was adorned, as a result, with a powerful story by the old captain about a hurricane that threw ships around like bits of paper and about the rescue of a beautiful lady passenger who had been thrown into the ocean by the roaring gale, by the captain himself, who saved her out of the waves at the risk of his own life.
The children’s hobby, which so clearly demonstrated their propensity toward journalism, greatly interested us. During our visits with various American families our attention had been drawn more than once to this good trait—if indeed it is not a tradition—which makes the children familiarize themselves with the profession of their father, or their grandfather, or some close relative. In the apartment of an auto-mechanic we saw a small lathe and a block on which a little fellow was filing something. In the family of a musician, little girls played on the violin. The little son of a well-known Hollywood scenario-creator told us excitedly how he and his little brothers and sisters were making a film. A child’s game gradually develops into an absorbing interest, and maybe in these games which are treated seriously, not only by the children but as a rule by the adults too, the seed of his future profession is planted in the child’s brain.
I expressed the wish to become a subscriber to the Green Spring-Menemsha Gazette for a full year and took out a $5 bill. The editor and the publisher exchanged glances. They obviously wished to get a foreign subscriber. But what if this should create trouble of some kind? Were they entitled to mail their magazine abroad, and moreover, to a country like the USSR? What would their father and mother say? And how would Mr. John Foster Dulles react?
David carefully pushed the bill away, back to my end of the table. I, of course, felt offended. Could it be that I had no right to subscribe to an American magazine? Why such discrimination? The editor whispered something to the publisher who ran out of the room and came back dragging Michael senior in once more. The father laughed. He apparently had no objection to the mailing abroad of the magazine which was being published under his sponsorship. All the periodical publications of good standing always have foreign subscribers. However, Michael senior had objections against any monetary transaction with countries abroad. It was agreed that the subscription would be handled on a clearing basis: the Green Spring-Menemsha Gazette would be mailed to the USSR in exchange for our children’s magazine The Pioneer. We shook hands on this transaction, concluded to the mutual satisfaction of the “high contracting parties.”
When we returned to the living room, the debate about the freedom of the press was still continuing. But the two sides had exchanged places. Gribatchov was the one who led the attack now; the idea of exchanging articles with The New Republic had gradually excited him. Publisher Harrison, on the contrary, was taking a defensive stand: he was already foreseeing numerous difficulties obstructing the materialization of his project. The unionist leader was sitting on the sofa next to them. He was a tall man with a pale face with an ironical expression, and he was gently mocking the discomfited publisher. “Really, why shouldn’t there be an exchange of articles with a Russian paper?”
So finally they came to no conclusion at all.
We were taking our seats in the car when David manfully shook hands with me and suddenly asked: “Maybe you will write from Moscow a contribution for publication in The Green Spring-Menemsha Gazette? Our magazine will gladly publish it, I can promise you.”