The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1906-02-09
CRUSADE AGAINST VICE.
The Great Work of Anthony Com
stock has Brought Splendid
Results.


Results.
Few of those who have read of the
accomplishments of Anthony Com
stock in his crusades against vice,
which have made his name known In
every section of the United States,
have any idea of the history of the
man whose single-handed eXertions
have been largely responsible for the
suppression of obscene literature and
photographs. He has been painted as a
crank of the weirdest sort, a notoriety
seeker, a CRATER using a cloak of
morality to enrich himself, and every
thing else wild and dishonest, but he
is none of these and to-day his posi-
ton is stronger and his influence more
potent than ever before.
His life has been threatened scores
of times by desperate criminals whom
he has deprived of their unlawful
gains and sent to the penitentiary.
Many attempts have been made to
stab shoot and poison him; ground
glass has been scattered in his food;
Internal machines have been sent him
through the mails and by express; he
has been accused of unprintable de-
pravity; his honesty has been sneered
at and his every motive impugned, but
he~has gone unscathed amid physical
perils and his reputation has escaped
the cleverly planned pitfalls designed
to ruin him in the eyes of the people
Land dissipate the enormous power for
good which he has built up by almost
lifetime of devotion to high duty.
Guardian of Youthful Morals.
Mr.. Comstock is best known for his
work in the prosecution of those who
make it business to sell indecent
books, pamphlets and pictures to the
young, but as a matter of fact he is
equally active in crushing out other
forms of vice, not only in New York,
but in the country at large. He travels
great deal from city to city and has
been a prominent figure in reform cru
sades in various sections of the coun-
try, and has frequently produced i'm
portant results while others supposed
to be helping him were engaged in
talking it over.
In a recent interview Mr.. Comstock |
tells for the first time the history Of
his life and how ne abandoned a prom
Using business career, in which he
might have made a comfortable for
tune, to pursue vocation which has |
never netted him more than living |
and has left him, in declining years |
still with a mortgage of $780, 900 on his
house at Summit, N. J.
He is sixty-one years of age and |
was bern in Connecticut. His brother
Samuel was killed at the battle of |
Gettysburg and young Anthony took
his place until the end of the war.
Returning to his native State he en-
tered a grocery store in New Haven,
but later went to Tennessee, where he
purchased supplies for the Lookout
Mountain Institute. His health failed
and he went to New York, landing
there with $3.45 in his pocket. He got
a job at $12 per week, but resigned
it to take one at SIS because he thought
the new one offered better opportuni-
ties for advancement. While eking out
an existence on this salary he found
that the young men in the store were
readers of stories of the vilest sort,
and he made his first raid He learned
that bookseller in shop few doors
away was selling the books. Young
1omstock took a policeman to the
place and had the proprietor arrested
ind in the case involved resurrected
What was dead letter law. He won
tut.
Progressing rapidly in the CONNER
,ial world, the young man was soon
making 81, 800 year commissions as a
alesman, but his adherence OF vice
vas in nowise abated. He found a
nan named Simpson trading in OBJ
Gene literature and told a policeman
lis troubles. Instead of arresting the
nan the policeman warned him to
kip out, and that was the pivot on
which the life of the young reformer
nrned. He had the policeman dis
missed for the bit of treachery and
he papers began to take notice. They
sked why he did not go into Nassau
treet and proceed against the open
iolators of the law there Mr. Com
IN all sides illegal publications were
penly for sale. and on March 2, 1872,
vhen he was but twenty-eight years
Id, he caused the arrest of seven
men. The fruits of this were the sup
ression of 1859 different books, the
aiding of three publishing houses, the
Of $4,000 worth Of plates
nd engravings from one man In
'rookiyn, the SelZinS OF Sto,uVV worth
1 plates and books from a man in
together with six tons OF
tereotyped plates from his printer, II
nd the destruction of $4,000 worth Of
ound books belonging to still another
nan. ALI of this was accomplished by
fr. Comstock without any assistance
rhatever from organization or COM
nittee,
He Found a Good Angel.
ga had started to buy home and
ad paid $500 down on It, but giving
mortgage for the rest, he used all
e could save from his salary to carry
n his crusade. He was firm believer
q prayer and he believed that It was
a answer to his supplications that