St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-03-04
A Grand Work Well Done.

Mr.. Anthony COmstock, the tireless
secretary of the Society for the Sup
pressiOn of Vice, has given an account
of his work in IA quartO volume of some
six hundred pages. He has been bitter
ly asSailed on many grounds, but for
the most part by men and classes whose
frauds he had exposed, whose crimes he
had feIreted out and brought to iudg-
ment, whose methods of entrapping the
inexperienced and unwary into their
nets he had laid bare. 1t is true that
he has fought fire with fire, and has
sometimes used Greek fire in dealing
with willy and accomplished Williams
who lived by preying upon the public
IN one way or another. His volume is
not pleasant reading. 1t is never agree
able to read of the vices, the wicked
nesses or the crimes of our fellow be
ings. But such things are in the world.
and so long as every pathway is beset
with snares and pitfalls it is of the ut
most Importance to he doubly armed
with precautionary knowledge. Mr..
COmstOck tells ut length of the tricks
and devices to which sharpers resort to
catch the unsuspecting the innocent
looking advertisements and reading no.
tices they put even in religious papers
the use they make of the post office in
sending circulars and letters the adrot
schemes they invent for catching the
notice of those who, unused to the ways
of the world, imagine that possibly
they may be lucky enough to get much
for nothing or next to nothing.
How these unscrupulOus adventurers
practice on human ignorance and cIedu-
iity, using the appliances and invcn-
tions of civilization to deceive the inno-
cent and plunder the confiding, is
enough to fill any one with amazement.
People cannot be too fully warned be-
forehand of the wiles and inventions of
the sharpers who spend ingenuity
enough in spreading their nets and
batting their traps to make the most
important and usful discoveries and in
ventions were it only properly applied.
Saddening as the volume is, it is q
needed medicine and a wholesome ton
ic. Certainly no one who reads it will
ever blame Mr.. Comstock for the meth
DDS he has adopted in unearthing in
formation leading to the detection and
banishment of men who had baffled the
police, exposing their iniquities to the
what is everybody's business is seldom
attended to by anybody. 1t is a great
thing to have a society whose special
mission it is to look after a class of
vices and crimes which the police can
not deal with, and which employs an
agent so admirably qualified for his
work and earnestly devoted to it as Mr..
Anthony Comstock. This Society for
the Suppression of Vice held its eighth
annual meeting in this city Tuesday
evening. 18th inst. 1t is free from debt
and begins work with a small sum in
its treasury. An indication of what it
has done is shown by the fact that in
1872, l65 different obscene books were
printed in this country. Last year but
two such had been discovered, and the
only immoral pictures captured had
been imported from abroad. Not one in
ten of those who to-day advertise to
sell obscene matter do so. Their bust
ness is purely swindle. None of the
others keep any considerable stock on
hand, where formerly truck-loads were
dealt in. The streets of the city are
comparatively free from peddlars of OBJ
scene articles, and the shop windows
and secular newspapers respect public
decency. Formerly, according to the
general manager of the dead-letter Of
flee in Washington, so many obscene
articles passed through that office that
it had never been deemed proper to
employ ladies there until two years
ago. Last year not a single obscene
book or article of any soft made its way
into the office. These facts show what
well directed efforts have accomplished,
and indicate what may be done. The
worst thing said of Mr.. COmstock is that
be is an enthusiast; but, considering
the object to which his energies are de-
voted, and the Importance of the work
he has done and is still engaged in, the
criticism becomes a cOmmendatiOn. it
is pity that his enthusiasm were not
more Christian at Work.