New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-12
COMSTOCK, VICE
RAIDER, OUSTED
FROM P. 0. JOB
Enemy of Evil Loses Gov
ernment Props of More
than 40 Years.
QUITS THIS MONTH;
SAYS 81 DON'T CARE"
Used Place as Inspector in Sup
preston That Frequently
Advertised.

advertised.
Anthony Comstock. censor of art and
literature, will on June 80 cease 20 be
"a United States Postoffce inspector.
After more than forty years in a place
that he made for himself he loses his
credentials and his salary because the
Postofice Department has become con
virced that misdirected zeal has made
HIM undesirable as an official.
IL understand that there will be a
readjustment of Offices on July l." he
admitted yesterday. when told that
news Of his decapitation had leaked
through the wireless system of the
Postoffice Department, "and that my
name will not be on the new list.
81 don't care.
81 have held the appointment for
more than forty years. Most of that
time had no salary. Finally Post
master General Cortelyou forced a sal
ary upon me. If wanted to fight they
ring charges. for am under the civil
service. But do not care am glad
to be relieved Of the work. | have
more to do than / can do. I'm glad to
be getting out" .
Comstock's story Of JOY at losing an
appointment he has held since March,
1910 Joae po. ccuora NTH roports ~,
Official circles. There the story goes
that enormous pressure had to be
brought to bear upon the vice crusader
10 get out gracefully, and it was only
when he was convinced that a contest
nould not avail him much that he
reached his present complaisant state
If mind.
The opposition to Comstock's reter-
ton IN the Office he had himself ap-
pointed TO when he formed the Society
for the Suppression of Vice, of which
he is secretary, is in the main official.
For several years he has been persona
non grata in the Federal Building, the
postal authorities regularly charged
with enforcing the laws obiecting to
his methods and the odor into which
his zeal at times brought their work.
The District Attorneys staff opposed
his methods of trying to run their
office.
Long ago the TACT that an Assistant
District Attorney had ordered Com
stock out of his office ceased to be
news to the reporters assigned to the
Federal Building, and federal judges
rebukng him ceased to attract atten-
tion. So offensive was he at times that
the late United States Commissioner
John A. Shields refused to order the
arrest of Hugh Gordon Miller when
that attorney in open court smashed the
crusader on eye AID jaw.
"That means fight where come
from" said Miller, who is a Virginian,
who later voluntarily apologized 60 the
court, but not to Comstock for the in
cident.
Quit Drygoods to Raid Vice.
Comstock, who was born in New
Canaan, Conn, in 1912, conceived the
idea of warning on vice in all its forms
in 1872. He was then a drygoods
clerk, having come to New York after
his discharge from the Union army.
He interested many church workers in
his idea, and in that year his society
was formed.
In the same year he secured the
enactment of legislation closing the
mails TO lotteries, and became a
Postoffice inspector at a nominal salary
of 81 a year. In the years that fol-
coast, principally because of the
bunders he made. Thus the National
Export Commission of Philadelphia
was threatened with prosecution for
sending obscene literature through the
mails. A poster that otherwise would
not have attracted much attention thus
received fame and wide circulation.
There were no prosecutions.
Other works came in for similar at
tention at his hands, with similar re-
suits. His star performance was in
1906 when he raided the rooms of the
Art Students League, seized large
quantities of its annual catalogue and
arrested the young woman Librarian.
The art world fought Comstock clear
through to Washington. He offered to
drop the prosecution il tie society
would permit him to destroy the cata
logues. The offer was refused
Then notice was given that he was
10 serve no longer as an official of the
Postoffice Department. Comstock
fought hard, rallying church people
from one end of the country to the
other TO his aid He finally got a new
commission, but the department placed
him on the list at 81, 900 a year TO
have some control over him.
Started September Morn" Vogue.
Comstock went on his raiding way,
however, one of his more recent COM
plants enriching the owners of the
American copyright of Paul Chabas's
September Morn" This young lady
had been standing in cold water in
many window for months before he
discovered her on Fifth Avenue. He
ordered the picture out Of exhibition.
The manager defied him and presses
could not run fast enough to supply
the demand. for copies.
Then he hailed Mitchell Kennerley
into court for publishing "Hagar Re
velly." Kennerley stood trial in the
United States Court and was acquitted.
Copies of the book sold by the thou
sands. Subsequently he attacked the
suffrage leaders who were selling Miss
Pankhurst's book and threatened prose-
cution. Mrs. Belmont defed him. No
arrests were made, but a dull work got
wide circulation.
Early in the present year an effort
was made TO suppress Comstock by
an act in the Assembly providing for
the appointment of an arts commits
sion. The bill failed.