Miracles keep happening on this small Island.
The latest one I experienced spanned decades of existence. A few days ago, friends dropped by my neighbor’s house, where I also happened to be, and showed us an old brown and tattered copy of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, dated October 1889. It had been found in the walls of the Red Cat restaurant, which was being moved and remodeled. I looked with awe at this old, original periodical, which I had often read about. But my neighbor wasn’t satisfied … “Look inside,” he urged.
I was floored to see that the opening article, titled “In East Siberian Silver Mines,” was authored by my great-great-uncle, George Kennan, for whom my better-known father was named. I knew that this distant relative had done a multiyear survey of tsarist prisons and penal colonies, and published a two-volume book about them, but it seemed inconceivable to find an over-100-year-old article, with illustrations, hidden in the wall of a restaurant being torn down and remodeled on Martha’s Vineyard. I’ve decided the lesson is, “You can find anything on Martha’s Vineyard.”
Keep your eyes open.
Grace Kennan Warnecke
Vineyard Haven
