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“You say that you're a friend of Alger Hiss. How well do you know him?" He answered, “We know each other pretty well. Our families knew each other for a long time.” Nixon said, “Give us some example. Tell us some things about Hiss that are not known by the public or have not come out in the papers.”

Chambers hesitated a little while, then said, “One of the things that Hiss is ridiculously proud of is--though he always says that he's been in public life all of his life--is that one time he did make some money privately. The tap water in Baltimore had been polluted and people hated drinking it. There was a spring about ten miles out of the city limits, however, with pure, wonderful water. When he was a little boy, Alger Hiss got hold of some big empty bottles and loaded them onto an express wagon. He went out to this spring and filled the bottles with clear water and then trundled them down Charles Street ringing doorbells and selling all eight bottles for a dollar apiece. This netted him eight dollars clear profit because the water hadn't cost him a cent. He's very proud of that.”

Nixon said, “Can you think of any other stories?” Chambers thought for a minute. Then he said, “You know, he doesn't do much in the way of athletics. I can't know what he does to amuse himself except that he and his wife are great bird watchers. They go on bird watching expeditions. The only time that I saw Alger Hiss really excited was when he came in one day and said, ‘What do you think that we saw along the Potomac today just outside of Washington? A prothonotary warbler!” Chambers interrupted, “What is a prothonotary warbler?" Hiss