The menace. [volume] (Aurora, Mo.) 1911-1920, 1915-10-16


mitted, am confident Of the right
eous verdict Of our brOad-minded
brother and all others Of his i'm
partial kind.
For further immediate informa.
ton concerning Comstocks Grim
inal career, | would refer Mr..
Snyder 10 the vast volume Of lit
erature on the subject, enough OF
which has been published TO fill
a considerable library. OF special
interest are the books, Com
stocks Frauds Exposed" and
Anthony Comstock; His Career
Of Cruelty and Crime"
| am unable 20 agree with our
brothers 5 assertion that, II The
Menace has told the truth about
Comstock, the editors Of his de-
nominational papers are, in con-
sequence, a set Of ignoramuses. ]
take a more charitable view, and
am quite unwilling TO charge such
liable and conscientious men
with Grass ignorance. Their mis-
taken estimate of ComStockiar
character has resulted not from a
lack Of intelligence but from a
lack Of information. IL is not
difficult for me to understand how
they have been deceived in the
matter. Time was when /, too, was
a Comstock dupe and believed him
all he pretended 10 be. Now that
know different, it is my wish to
disillusion others.
Now, for those Of The Menace
readers who insist that Comstock
is different from what have de-
scribed him.
Let me say to you, my friends,
that you are talking of something
which you know nothing shout.
This is not a good thing TO do.
Silence, under the circumstances,
were greatly wiser.
Have you ever met Comstocki
/ have. Have you ever studied his
methodist | have. Have you ever
inspected closely his careeri /
have. Have you ever Investigated
his recordi have.
With Feet Of Clay "
1t shocks us, know, when our
idols are shattered. But then idol
worship is not an excellent thing.
OF course / know all that fam
liar cant about our dealing with
principles instead of persons
know it as the studious schoolboy
knows his perfected lesson, and 1
know also how little it really
means. But the fact remains,
stubborn as stone, that in this
world and in the affairs of life we
have to deal with human beings,
who must be held responsible for
their misdeeds, for only in persons
are principles exemplifed. We
must consider individuals with re-
gard to the ideas they represent
as active agents for good or evil
and Comstock personally repre-
sented all the evils Of Comstock-
cry.
i Comstock WAS Comstoekery.
Apropos Of this, a great deal Of
puerile rot has been prated about
"defaming the dead" This is en-
inently out of place when it con-
Germs one whose whole long life
was its own defamation. There is
no real reason, anyway, why the
truth should not be told about
some person who died yesterday,
Just the same as about some his
toric character of the Roman hier-
archy who has been a long time
dead. Anthony Comstock's S mem
! ory is no more sacred than is that
J of the Borgias. Tomaso de Tor
| auemada is dead, but no one not
in sympathy with his inquisitorial
spirit would for that reason care
to call him a nice man. If / re-
l member rightly, Benedict Arnold
: is dead, and if l mistake not Judas
4 Iscariot no longer answers
"Here!" to the census enumera.
5 tor; vet, both from platform and
5 from pulpit, occasionally l hear
: both these persons referred tc
r rather unkindly. Besides, / an
not criticising a corpse, but human
character, which, through its i'm
y perishable precepts, endures eter
. nally. All actions carry their con
q sequences, and consequences arr
1 immortal. "The evil men do live
> after them" And Comstock /
4 iniquitous law still stands fOrtl
1