Part 12 (1/2)
”It doesn'tup on Mason It was as close to a confirmation as he need- ed He wrote the story
At 39, Scott Byron Mason was already into his second career
Despite the objections of his overbearing father, he had avoided the faood enough for h for my kids” Scott was an only child, but his father had wanted more despite his mother's ina- bility to carry another baby to full terht the resent protec- tion of his mother Marie Elizabeth Mason wanted her son to have eneration in the lower middle class doldrums of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn Not that Scott are of his predicament; he was a dreae of six Scott kneords his father never learned - how and why His childhood curiosity led to s by the hot te in the house in an atteh, Scott could reassemble what he broken down to its ss and bruised bottom Scott wasn't satisfied with, ”that's just the way it is,” as an answer to anything
Behind his father's back, Marie had Scott take tests and be accepted to the elite Bronx High School of Science, an hour and a half train ride from Brooklyn To Scott it wasn't an escape from Brooklyn, it was a chance to learn why and how ave Marie and Scott a three day silent treatment until his mother finally put an end to it ”Horace Stipton Mason,”
Evelyn Mason said with ift, and you will not, I repeat, you will not interfere with his happiness”
”Yes dear”
”The boy is thirteen and he has plenty of ti to do with himself Is that clear?”
”Yes dear”
”Good” She would say as she finished setting the table ”Dinner is ready Wash your hands boys” And the subject was closed
But throughout his four years at the best dah school in the country, Horace found aht thing to follow in the faenerations before hi Scott's rebellious teenage years The War, dee Washi+ngton, writing for the New York Free Press, Scott was even arrested once or twice or three ti the world in a neay He was rapidly growing up, as did ood enough for scholorshi+ps, but adequate to be accepted at several reasonable schools
”I already paid for his education,” screae to keep costs down He would live at hoht, radios, TV's, washers He can go to work like a , Scott moved out of the house and in with three rooe, where all New Yorkers can get a free education Scott played very hard, studied very little and let his left of center politics guide his social life His engineering professors reiven talents and that he spentattention It was an unpredictable piece of luck that Scott Mason would never have to ineer He would be able to re the ularly had little purpose beyond satisfying technical creativity
”Can we go with it?” Scott asked City Editor Douglas McQuire and John Higgins, the City Times' staff attorney whose job it was to answer just such questions McQuire and Mason had been asked to join Higgins and publisher Anne Manchester to review the paper's position on running Mason's story Scott was being lawyered, the relatively impersonal cross examination by a so-called friendly in-house attorney It was the single biggest pain in the ass of Scott's job, and since he had a knack for finding sensitive sub- jects, he was lawyered fairly frequently Not that itcalled to the principal's office every time
Scott's boyish enthusiasm for his work, and his youthful appear- ance allowed soer than his years,a slender 6 foot tall and shy of 160 pounds His longish thin sandy hair and a tiood catch on his better days- he was back in circulation at allasses he donned for an extreme case of myopia were a visible stylized re a sophisti- cated air of radicalis every two or three, or occasionally four days He bla habits on his transparent and sensitive skin 'just like dick Nixon's'
The four sat in Higgins' comfortable dark paneled office With 2 walls full of books and generous seating, the aant and subdued law library Higgins chaired the ht a tall stack of files and put theo over every bit, froins made it sound more like and order than responsible journalistic double checking Higgins didn't interfere in the news end of the business; he kept his opinions to himself But it was his respon- sibility to insure that the City Tiation Thatas a story was properly researched, sourced, and confirmed, the con- tents were immaterial to him That was the Publisher's choice, not his
Mason had co ht not like what he had to say, but he respected his opinion and didn't argue too ins was never purposefully adversarial He merely wanted to know that both the writers and the newspaper had all their ducks in a row Just in case Libel suits can be such a pain, and expensive
”Why don't you tell ain, about how you found out about the McMillan scains turned on a small micro-cassette re- corder ”I hope you don't mind,” he said as he tested it ”Keeps better notes than I do,” he offhandedly said nobody objected
There would have been no point in objecting even if anyone cared
It was an unspoken truisood attorneys taped many of their unofficial depositions to protect the With a newspaper as your sole client, the First Aan His reporter's notebook sat atop files full of coo, on Septeuy said, 'You want some dirt on McMillan and First State S&L?' I said sure, what do you have and who is this?”
”So then you kneho Francis McMillan was?” Higgins looked up surprised