Iris was placed in charge of recruiting and training the proselytizers,
while Paul handled the business end; obtaining property in different
cities and managing the large sums of money which poured in from all
over the world. Except for Cave’s one encounter with the press that
day in the Empire State Building (an occasion which, despite its
ominous beginning, became a rare triumph: Cave’s magic had worked even
with the hostile), he was seen by no one except his intimates and the
technicians of the television studio. Ways were found to disguise him
so that he would not be noticed in the lobbies or elevators of the
television network building. Later he spoke only from his Long Island
retreat, his speeches being recorded on film in advance.
By the time summer had arrived, there were over three million
registered Cavites in the United States as well as numerous,
unorganized believers abroad. Paul was everywhere at once, flying
from city to city (accompanied by two guards and a secretary); he
personally broke ground in Dallas for what was to be the largest Cavite
Center in the United States and although the inaugural ceremonies
were nearly stopped by a group of Baptist ladies carrying banners and
shouting “Onward Christian Soldiers,” no one was hurt and the two oil
millionaires who had financed the Center gave a great barbecue on the
foundation site which was attended by many distinguished guests.
Iris was entirely changed by her responsibilities. She had become,
in the space of a few months, brisk, energetic, as deeply involved in
details as a housewife with a new home. I saw very little of her that
spring. Her days were mostly spent in a rented loft in the Chelsea
district where she lectured the candidates for field work and organized
a makeshift system of indoctrination for these potential Residents, as
the heads of the various centers were known.
She was extraordinarily well fitted for this work, to my surprise, and
before the year ended she had what was in fact a kind of university
where as many as three hundred men and women at a time were regularly
transformed into Residents and Deputy Residents and so on down through
an ever proliferating hierarchy. For the most part, the first men and
women we sent out to the country were highly educated, thoughtful
people, entirely devoted to Cavesword. They were, I think, the best of
all, for later, when it became lucrative to be a Resident, the work
was largely taken over by energetic careerists whose very activity and
competence diminished their moral effectiveness.
Iris used me unmercifully those first months. I lectured her students;
I taught philosophy until, in exasperation at the absurdity of _that_,
I told her to hire a professional teacher of philosophy which she did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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