Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 97: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION decide what to print and how to feature it, gets a lot of attention, son. “The entire Earth lived from hour to hour, waiting for the doctors’ report on how the cut was coming along. Would there be an infection? Would his whole arm drop off?’? Sam snorted with disgust. ““A joint session of World Congress was held to discuss whether the band- ages ought to be changed or not. You'll always find the politicians where you find the publicity, son. The manufac- turer opened up thirty-seven new pickle factories and still couldn’t keep up with the demand. He made a billion.” Could the old man _ be pulling my leg? Somehow I doubted it. There was the ring of sincerity, of honest indignation. And, too, I well knew that the measure of heroism is determined by the open news space, or some- body thinking it’s time to get the people hopped up over something. I didn’t need the old trader’s punch line, but he gave it anyway. ‘“MacNab landed on the day the bandage was to be changed. He done better though. He made page twenty- nine, this time, and two paragraphs. Some of the jewel- ler trade-papers featured the story about the diamonds, but they didn’t think to mention MacNab.” He sighed. “It went on that way,” he said. ‘MacNab probably did more to open up the solar system than any other man, living or dead. But nobody ever heard of him. He always came in on the wrong beat of somebody else’s publicity. Even in the companies he worked for, it went the same. The company wheels always just happened to be looking in another direction. You play poker, son?” ‘**A little,’ I answered, al- though I couldn’t See the connection. ‘““You ever have a streak, no matter how good your hand, somebody at the table can always nose you out?” ‘Sure,’ I laughed. “If I have two pair, he’s got three of a kind. If I’ve got threes, he’s got a straight. If I’ve got a straight——-”’ comiclooks.comn