The Portland daily press., 1891-12-31
NO BouDolR FOR DuNToN.
Judge Webb Sentences Him to Four
Months in Cumberland Jail.

Inc most interesting proceeding IN Cno
United States Court yesterday was the sem
fencing of George E. Dunton of Augusta,
who pleaded nolo contendere a few days
ago to the charge OF sending obscene liter
ature through the mails. Dunton is well
appearing young man who seems to have a
good many influential friends In Augusta,
who hoped to get him off with ia fine SIM
ply.
His offense was in sending through the
mails photographs of the nude. The pho
tographs were generally copies Of the
works of French artists. Probably art
galleries in nearly all large cities have SIM
liar pictures on public exhibition. Had
Dunton simply advertised himself as q
dealer in art pictures it might haze been
difficult to have convicted him. But in
one of his circulars he spoke expressly Of
evadlng the law by passing the photo
graphs off as works of art. This seemed
conclusive of his intention to pander to
those whose tastes call for indecency rath-
er than art. o. A. TueI, Esq. OF Augusta.
and Judge Symonds of this city. were re-
tanned by Dunton. District Attorney
Dyer appeared for the government Judge
Symonds endeavored to secure mitigation
OF the severity of the penalty, which
might be either fine or Imprisonment. His
argument was scholarly discussion of the
subject of the art of painting as practised
by the modern French artists In their
treatment of the nude. He argued that the
pictures sent out by Dunton, being princi-
pally copies of the paintings Of artists Of
acknowledged merit were not indecent.
Judge Webb. in imposing sentence, said
he could not subscribe to this argument,
and declared that he must impose sem
tence severe enough to deter others from
entering the business. Therefore he sem
fenced Dunton to four months in Portland
Jail.
Judge Symonds asked that the place of
confinement be changed to Augusta jail.
There might be too much favor In Au-
gusta jail" replied Judge Webb. 81 do
not propose to send this young man to a
boudoir. Besides. there is no reason for
putting the government to the expense of
transporting the prisoner to Augusta"
The LoweIltown smuggler.
Martin Gleason, young man Of Lowell
town. one of the party that took liquor from
bonded car on the Canadian Pacific, was
arraigned yesterday. Gleason seems to
have been respectable fellow, but in an
evil moment he aided the fellows who
broke into the car in concealing their
tu vun oo,f
he Is, came down to stand by him, and
General C. P. Mattocks appeared for him
in court. Gleason's employers stated that
he was steady. hard working fellow; and
said they would pay his fine rather than
be deprived of his services. Judge Webb
heard all the facts and then decided that
Gleason need not go to jail If he could pay
fine of $50. The fine was paid over to
Clerk Davis, and Martin and his mother
went away happy. the latter doing little
crying to testify her appreciation of the
judges clemency.
The SANTANA Case.
In 1888 the steamship SANTANA, owned by
an English firm. sailed from New York for
Hayti. Among her insurance were two
policies from the Portland Marine Under
writers, the Ocean Insurance having $25O0
and the Portland Lloyds $1,000. The Sam
ana Company filed libel to recover this
insurance. The ibellees claimed they
were not liable as the policies had been
cancelled. On the other hand the libel
lants claimed that the policies were not
cancelled until after the loss of the steam
er. The case was brought on trial yester-
day afternoon, d. w. Snow appearing for
the libellants and Benjamin Thompson for
the libellees. and Is now on trial.