Methuselah's Children Read Free Page B

had had the grace to die at a reasonable age he would not now be worried about money enough to finish medical school.
    "We have talked with them, yes. But not about you."
    The lawyer shut off further discussion and young Johnson accepted gracelessly a list of young women, all strangers, with the intention of tearing it up the moment he was outside the office. Instead, that night he wrote seven drafts before he found the right words in which to start cooling off the relation between himself and his girl back home. He was glad that he had never actually popped the question to her-it would have been deucedly awkward.
    When he did marry (from the list) it seemed a curious but not too remarkable coincidence that his wife as well as himself had four living, healthy, active grandparents.
     
    "-an openly chartered non-profit corporation," Foote continued, "and its avowed purpose of encouraging births among persons of sound American stock was consonant with the customs of that century. By the simple expedient of being close-mouthed about the true purpose of the Foundation no unusual methods of concealment were necessary until late in that period during the World Wars sometimes loosely termed 'The Crazy Years-' "
     
    Selected headlines April to June 1969:

    BABY BILL BREAKS BANK 2-year toddler youngest winner $1,000,000 TV jackpot White House phones congrats
    COURT ORDERS STATEHQUSE SOLD Colorado Supreme Bench Roles State Old Age Pension Has First Lien All State Property
    N.Y. YOUTH MEET DEMANDS UPPER LIMIT ON FRANCHISE

    "U.S. BIRTH RATE 'TOP SECRET' "-DEFENSE SEC

    CAROLINA CONGRESSMAN COPS BEAUTY CROWN "Available for draft for President" she announces while starting tour to show her qualifications

    IOWA RAISES VOTING AGE TO FORTY-ONE Rioting on Des Moines Campus

    EARTH-EATING FAD MOVES WEST: CHICAGO PARSON EATS CLAY SANDWICH IN PULPIT "Back to simple things," he advises flock.

    LOS ANGELES HI-SCHOOL MOB DEFIES SCHOOL BOARD "Higher Pay, Shorter Hours, no Homework-We Demand Our Right to Elect Teachers, Coaches."

    SUICIDE RATE UP NINTH SUCCESSIVE YEAR AEC Denies Fall-Out to Blame
     
    " '-The Crazy Years.' The trustees of that date decided-correctly, we now believe-that any minority during that period of semantic disorientation and mass hysteria was a probable target for persecution, discriminatory legislation, and even of mob violence. Furthermore the disturbed financial condition of the country and in particular the forced exchange of trust securities for government warrants threatened the solvency of the trust.
    "Two courses of action were adopted: the assets of the Foundation were converted into real wealth and distributed widely among members of the Families to be held by them as owners-of-record; and the so-called 'Masquerade' was adopted as a permanent policy. Means were found to simulate the death of any member of the Families who lived to a socially embarrassing age and to provide him with a new identity in another part of the country.
    "The wisdom of this later policy, though irksome to some, became evident at once during the Interregnum of the Prophets. The Families at the beginning of the reign of the First Prophet had ninety-seven per cent of their members with publicly avowed ages of less than fifty years. The close public registration enforced by the secret police of the Prophets made changes of public identity difficult, although a few were accomplished with the aid of the revolutionary Cabal.
    "Thus, a combination of luck and foresight saved our secret from public disclosure. This was well-we may be sure that things would have gone harshly at that time for any group possessing a prize beyond the power of the Prophet to confiscate.
    "The Families took no part as such in the events leading up to the Second American Revolution, but many members participated and served with credit in the Cabal and in the fighting which preceded the fall of New Jerusalem. We took advantage of the period of disorganization which