of documents. Citizens were subject to be stopped in  the street at any time ; and the Examiner , who might be in plain clothes , in various uniform , often in bathing suit or pyjamas , sometimes stark naked except for a badge pinned to his left nipple , after checking eac paper, would stamp it. On subsequent inspection the citizen was required to show the properly entered stamps of the last  inspection . The Examiner , when he stopped a large group, would only examine and stamp the cards of a few. The others were the subject to arrest because their cards were not properly stamped.                                    Arrest meant ” provisonal detention ” ; that is , the prisoner would be released if and when his Affidavit of Explaination , properly signed and stamped , was approved by The Assistant Arbiter of Explainations . Since this official hardly ever came to his office , and the Affidavit of Explaination had to be presented in person ,the explainers spent weeks and months waiting around in unheated offices with no stairs and no toilet facilities. Documents issued in vanishing ink faded into old pawn tickets. New documents were constantly required . The citizens rushed from one bureau to another in a frenzied attempt to meet impossible deadlines. All benches were removed from the city, all fountains turned off, all flowers and trees destroyed. Huge electric buzzers on the top of every apartment house ( everyone lived in apartments ) rang the quarter hour . Often the vibrations wold throw people out of bed . Searchlights played over the town all night ( no one was permitted to use shades , curtains , shutters or blinds ) . No one ever looked at anyone else because of the strict law against importuning, with or without verbal