The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-06-18


has recently abused his legal authority 70
suppress indecent literature" By express
ing his opinion that Fielding's Tom
Jones' IL an immoral work and his deter
mination TO prevent It's sale. This man
Comstock Is kind OF male prurient prude,
who seems to be incapable Of distinguish
ing between . book that is written. pub
llshed and sold for the sake Of making an
appeal TO the baser passions ard book
that contains coarse passages incidental TO
a description of the manners and customs
of the times.
James Russell Lowell delivered q eulogy
upon its author in Westminster Abbey.
The English Bible. Shakespeare. Chaucer
and Don Quixote contain passages Of
equal coarseness; there is no character in
tom Jones" that talks such rank and
ribald speech as Jack Falstatf in Henry
the Fourth" as Lucio in Measure for
Measure" bu. every man of sense knows
that the primary purpose of Chaucer, Ger
vantes, Shakespeare. Montaigne or the
writers of the Old Testament was not OBJ
scenity or lubricity; the coarseness is
merely incidental to the character. to the
manners, customs and civilization OF the
time.
Several years ago Comstock arrested the
members Of a large art firm in New York
city. Knoedler IL Co., who could afford to
fight and get justice. which they did. and
Comstock was roundIy rebuked by the
trial Judge for bis incapacity to under
stand that nude picture or figure was not
necessarily obscene. while a picture
or figure that was not nude at all
might be clearly lewd and indecent in atti-
tude and expression. 1.-THE Greek Slave"
is a nude figure, but nobody but fool
would call il an obscene statue. This
Comstock deliberately abuses his legiti-
mate powers and arrests art dealers for
selling pictures that children can see any
day in the New York city Metropolitan
Museum of Art, which is thrown open
every Sunday to visitors, or in the
Academy of Design or in any private gall
lery and In many of the churches. and
forces them to fight him in court in long
and expensive litigation or confess judg-
ment by paying certain sum as COM
promise. This man persists in abusing the
intent of the law aud powers of his Office
after being judicially instructed over and
over again that he has no business to ar
rest art dealers for keeping nude pictures
and statues for sale; that though they are
nude they are not obscene art. A Phila-
delphia Judge once bluntly told him to
mind his own business and not mistake
decent art for indecent; pure for impure;
the spiritual for the obscene nude.
Comstock is not content to use the law;
he abuses it; he seems to reason that be-
cause there Is indecent art in shape of
nude pictures, therefore all nude pictures
shall be confiscated. This is the same old
nonsense which pleads with the world to
pardon every tyrant who pleads for his
tyranny that he is trying to reform the
world. Reformers outside the law can
rage and rant as they please. but when
reformers become officers Of the law they
must be held TO as strict accountability for
abusing the law as their fellow man whom
they outrage under the pretense OF enforc-
ing the law. Gle means we'll" is no ex-
cuse under the law, when its officer tram
pies on the liberty and property rights of
his fellows. An officer OF the law must
neither rise above IL nor fall below it, and
when he does he is no longer fit TO be an
officer of the law. The world is not con-
cerned with his ignorance nor his zeal
where ii feels the outrage of his acts. II
he does not know his duty, or knowing il
will not do 1t, he should be made to step
down aud out of the authority he has
abused
Ii makes no difference to Comstock that
Byron called Fielding. the author of sTom
Jones" and Amelia" the prose Homer
of human nature" The great English
historian Gibbon said; "The romance of
Tom Jones, that exquisite picture of hui
man manners, Will eutlive the palace of
the Escurial aud the imperial eagle of
Austria"
Thackeray, IN his lectures on the "Great
English Humorists." said:
las picture of manners the novel of
Tom Jones Is indeed exquisite; "a a work
OF construction. quite wonder, the hy-
play Of wisdom. the power of observation,
tae multiplied felicitous turns and
thoughts. the varied character of the great
Comic Epic. keep the reader in a perpetual
admiration and curiosity"
Coleridgs said that "a young man whose
heart or feelings can be injured. or even
his passions excited. by this novel, is al
ready thoroughly corrupt"
Edwin T. whipple, our great American
critic. said:
ain Tom Jones Fielding has compre-
hended larger variety of incidents an a
characters. under n Stricter unity of story
than in Joseph Andrews bat he mas given
TO the whole tone OF woridiiness which
does not mar the delightful simplicity OF
the latter. As an expression OF the power
and breadth OF his mind. however, il il
altogether his greatest work: and il the
union Of distinct pictorial representation
with profound knowledge OF practical
life. IS uneqaalled by any novel in the Ian
gRsge"
tom Jones" il as much part Of the
great permanent literature Of the world as
Chaucer. shAkspeare. Pope, Montaigns
and Don QuiKote. and yet this big ignorant
s'duffsr" proposes 20 prosecute respect.