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manitarian or beneficent interests. Hinckle III began by informingEmmett that the article in question had already been written and was presently at the printers where the plates were being offset for the presses. He also noted that there was only a passing mention of Emmett and the Diggers in the story, and that there was nothing to worry about. The conversation continued with Emmett having downed his first glass of booze and working on an equally large second, while chatting about his career in the army and telling a few humorous stories about the work he was doing as a Digger in the Haight-Ashbury.

He only stayed for about twenty, twenty-five minutes, and two weeks later, Ramparts magazine was on almost every newsstand in America with a picture of poster-artis~ Stanley Mouse on the cover and "A Social History of the Hippies" written by Warren Hinckle III inside. The article amounted to nothing short of stone fabrication--a farfetched piece of snide bunko about a fictive "summit meeting of the leaders of the new hippie subculture," which the Diggers had supposedly "convened in the lowlands of California's High Sierras during an early spring weekend" to discuss "the sta~e of the nation of the hippies." As a preface to the plated concoction, there was a full-page photo montage of the alleged "Dramatis Personae" of whom "Emmett Grogan" was one, representing the Diggers. The picture they used was a snapshot taken by a girl one day, when he delivered some Free Food from the produce market to her commune. It was a black-and-white shadowy print, while all the others were bright, clear technicolor shots, and its murkiness was a consolation, because few people who didn't already know him could recognize him from it. But it did capture his image all right, showing him in his fatigue jacket wearing his IRA cap at an angle.

As soon as Emmett saw that March issue of Ramparts, he knew it meant trouble. And he became more certain of the ticklish situation it was to cause, after he read the two pages of copy which described him in unreal, outlandishly romantic terms, as the Frodo Baggins of the Haight-Ashbury and "roguish hero and kingpin of the Diggers." The profile of him also outlined several of the anecdotes which he told to Hinckle III during their brief drinking session, and concluded with a lambent flame of intellect by advising the hippies that if they didn't start actively protesting with marches and rallies, instead of just living their protest, more and more youngsters would begin "to drop out of the arduous task of attempting to steer a difficult, unrewardin~ society" and the driving would be left to the [end page 314]

 

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