Year of the Jackpot 14

submit to an examination to determine the judge's true sex.
The judge suffered a stroke and died and the trial was
postponedpostponed forever in Breen's opinion; he
doubted that this particular blue law would ever again be
enforced.
Or the laws about indecent exposure, for that matter. The
attempt to limit the Gypsy-Rose syndrome by ignoring it
had taken the starch out of enforcement; now here was a
report about the All Souls Community Church of Spring-
field: the pastor had reinstituted ceremonial nudity. Prob-
ably the first time this thousand years, Breen thought, aside
from some screwball cults in Los Angeles. The reverend
gentleman claimed that the ceremony was identical with
the "dance of the high priestess" in the ancient temple of
Kamak.
Could bebut Breen had private information that the
"priestess" had been working the burlesque & nightclub cir-
cuit before her present engagement. In any case the holy
leader was packing them in and had not been arrested.
Two weeks later a hundred and nine churches in thirty-
three states offered equivalent attractions. Breen entered
them on his curves.
This queasy oddity seemed to him to have no relation to
the startling rise in the dissident evangelical cults through-
out the country. These churches were sincere, earnest and
poorbut growing, ever since the War. Now they were
multiplying like yeast. It seemed a statistical cinch that the
United States was about to become godstruck again. He
correlated it with Transcendentalism and the trek of the
Latter Day Saintshmm . . . yes, it fitted. And the curve
was pushing toward a crest.
Billions in war bonds were now falling due; wartime mar-
riages were reflected in the swollen peak of the Los Angeles
school population. The Colorado River was at a record low
and the towers in Lake Mead stood high out of the water.
But the Angelenos committed slow suicide by watering
lawns as usual. The Metropolitan Water District commis-
sioners tried to stop itit fell between the stools of the police
powers of fifty "sovereign" cities. The taps remained open,
trickling away the life blood of the desert paradise.
The four regular party conventionsDixiecrats, Regular
Republicans, the other Regular Republicans, and the Demo-
cratsattracted scant attention, as the Know-Nothings had
not yet met. The fact that the "American Rally," as the
Know-Nothings preferred to be called, claimed not to be a