The Indianapolis journal., 1896-04-26

HIS TIRELEss CRUSADE AGAINST
INDECENT LITERATURE.
Confidence Men, Lotteries and Frauds
OF All Kinds Have Been Fought by
Him for Twenty-Five Years.


against Anthony Comstock. it must at |
least be admitted that he has accom- |
plished something. The history Of his |
successes may be traced for twenty-four
years on the statute books OF the State
and the Nation. The New York obscen-
ity laws and the enactments against
green goods, lotteries and pool gambling
are the work of Anthony Comstock. The
act OF Congress Of 1873, with the amend
nent OF 1876, making II felony to send
obscene matter through the mails. was
drafted by him. In his Office was drawn
up the amendment to the Revised
Statutes of the Nation that furnished a
basis for prosecution against green goods
and other fraudulent schemes. In his
Office also was prepared the bill which
drove the lotteries out Of the country,
and for five years he fought for its
passage until 1t became a law under
President Harrison. He drafted the
green goods law of Connecticut and
passed it in forty-eight hours. He per-
formed a similar service for New Jersey
and helped prepare legislation for a
dozen other States. He has conducted in
person scores Of successful local fights
throughout the country. Somehow he
has the knack of accomplishing things.
In his quarter of century Anthony
Comstock has made the grosser forms
of bad literature a memory of the
metropolis; he has driven every one of
the six national lotteries out of the city.
the State and the Nation: he has sent the
policy shops skulking into the dark
places or the Island; he has broken up
the bands of green goods men in New
York, scattered their picket line to Jer-
sey City and hunted their outposts into
prison; he has wiped out New York's
gambling dens in repeated raids. With
the long arm Of international diplomacy
he has reached out and apprehended
criminals in Amsterdam, Buda Pesth
and Rome. He has set the machinery in
motion for concert with America of
European nations to suppress in the
mails unlawful publications. In all this
work he has had the assistance of the
police, the cooperation of public spirited
people and the unfailipg support of the
| great men who compose the society of
which he Is agent. But his own en-
| thusiasm and energy have been the NOV
ing forces In his campaigns, and, rightly
| or wrongly, the society claims for him
| that in the single matter Of green goods
/
| for more seizures. arrests and convic-
tions than the police of New York,
Brooklyn. Jersey City and Philadelphia
| combined.
Such have been the public services of
Anthony Comstock. They have been per-
| formed in the face of an opposition that
would appall a man Of common metal,
in the teeth Of hostility that at times
| has been fairly devilish in its ingenuity
and vindictiveness, in despite of a storm
| or obloquy that has threatened to close
/ his career in clouds of infamy Some
times the friends of those things that
are Of good report have had to complain
| of overzeal on his part; of too censorious
| a Judgment upon works Of art; of too
particular a scrutiny upon the classics
of less civilized ages. But above these
| mistakes, If such they were, have loomed
the large lines of herculean work for the
public good and the sturdy proportions
| or the man who, with simple courage,
has literally braved the terrors of hell
WHAT HE HAS FOUGHT.
If Anthony Comstock were to put in
words the thought that has guided his
footsteps it might take the form of that
stanza printed some while ago:
And fierce though the'fiends may fight,
And long though the angels hide,
know that Truth and Right
Have the Universe on their side.
1
to waver in the faith of the final couplet.
For few men have ever had to fight such
foes as has he. Assassination by methods
both primitive and scientific has been
repeatedly attempted against him. A
scar on his left cheek two inches long
bears witness to the knife of a vengeful
prisoner whom he was taking to the Es-
sex county Jail. He has had a varied ex-
perience with sandclubbers. Smallpox
germs were sent by mail into his family
while he lived in Brooklyn. For months
he was haunted by the fear of what
might befall them in his absence. A
porous plaster covered with diseased
substances was delivered at his Office in
the old American Tract Society building
and the clerk who handled the package
is cripple to this day. A gang of green
goods men surrounded him in a room in
Jersey City and would have "done him
up but that he was heavily armed. An
internal machine was left at his office
neatly packed in a collar box. The re-
moval of the lid would have released a
spring that would have rasped a sand
paper block across dozen match heads
and set fire TO fuse running into a bot
tie OF powder. But the spring was too
stubborn. and the internal machine went
into its intended victims collection of
curiosities. Mr.. Comstock showed 1t to
the Mail and Express reporter this week,
and 1t was characteristic of the man
that the only emotion it aroused in him
was reminiscent interest. Fear and re-
sentiment had disappeared, If he ever felt
them. In that same closet was a bulky
tin box labeled Threatening letters >
Their recipient kept these minatory
epistles on a shelf adjoining the dusty
| files OF a magazine which contained arti-
cles written by him on his work, and ii
was not easy to tell from his manner
| which he valued more.
Anthony Comstock has weathered
obloquy as well as opposition, and the
fiercest scrutiny of his enemies has failed
to discover anything to shake the conf
dence of the men who rallied about him
In 1873. He has withstood temptations
such as come TO few men. The repre-
sentative of a lottery company offered tc
contribute $4,000 TO the funds of his So
ciety IL he would permit it to continue in
business. Men who feared exposure
have rendered $500 and $1,000 to regain
possession of books they knew were to
be put in evidence against them.
HE REMAINS POOR.
One dealer in a fraudulent device
would have given $500 to get back a
single addressed envelope. An agent
with strictly business" motives could
have retired from the enternrisa NTH q