Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 71 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE LITTLE CORPORAL hand from a man you may have heard of. Barker.” As he had hoped, she was more than ready to forget Shaw and talk about Barker. She stared at the mention of the prosaic name that had ceased to be prosaic in one generation and had been hurriedly changed by millions of Barkers on three planets. “You mean you’re that Win- err “Yes. I thought you knew. After all, we’ve just come from Ceres. This ship landed him there six months ago.” “Tell me about him. What is he like?” *“You could have found out any time you liked on Ceres. He would have talked very charmingly to you and given you a ring or a bracelet, just for being a pretty girl.” “Oh, I'd never have dared go near him. They say he can do everything. Is that just a legend?” Winter grinned. “Surely he hasn’t had time to become a legend yet—again? No, there isn’t much he can’t do. But don’t think he’s a god or a superman. He’s just a highly intelligent man with varied 21 talents. He knows everything because he was always inter- ested in everything. If you and I understood and remembered all we’d ever heard in history, music, philosophy, science, literature and art, we’d seem to know just about everything, too. Well, we would if we’d been really interested in it. Barker is never at a loss, because everything he learns goes into a huge, live frame- work of knowledge, not a jumbled notebook of fact, superstition and memory. He never forgets anything that matters, because it’s not an isolated entry somewhere, but part of a structure, always available until the whole struc- ture falls down. No, what made Barker what he is was just intelligence, versatility, and his faculty of being en- grossed by anything, literally anything. The rest was inevitable.” Esther accepted the cigarette he handed her and let him light it. “Do you mind if I ask something? Something a lot of people must wonder?” | **Not in the least.’” He knew what it was. “Why are you—almost Comicbooks.com),