The Washington times., 1919-12-18
Efforts Made to Delay Arraign-
ment Till Grand Jury Com
pleteS Probe.
MADELEINE" is RECALLED
Harpers' Head Asks Return of
All Books Distributed
Throughout Nation.

| NEW YORK. Dec. 1S.-After the
arrest of Clinton T. Brainard, secre-
tary of the extraordinary grand jury.
on the charge of selling obscene lit
erature, Harper & Bros. recalled
Madeleine" from all book shops.
Brainard represents the ]. P. Morgan
interests as president Of the publish
ing company.
The recall of the indecent ''biog-
raphy" became known yesterday
| through book stores in several cities.
1t was stated that the order came
from Harper's and was peremptory.
The order was effective as far West
as Los Angeles, where one bookseller
said he had been informed that fur
| ther sale Of the volume would make
him liable to prosecution. In Wash
ington certain dealers were holding
the volume for sale at SIS until the
police stopped the traffic.
| Sales Are Discontinued.
At one of the most exclusive Fifth
avenue book stores, where Made
| leine" had been listed as a best
seller" sales were cut off and the
agencies of the store in other cities
! instructed % return all copies.
i Lawyers said last night that this
order would tend to relieve Harpers
from litigation that might be started
by bookseller who was arrested
after innocently selling the obscene
volume. 1t was also said that the
move might be used in the court Of
special sessions next week as an ar
Brainard is found guilty. The maxi
mum penalty for the crime of pub
fishing or selling a filthy book Is
$1,000 fine and one year prison term
Brainard Is on $500 bail since Magfs-
trate George Simpson, expressing be-
lief in his guilt, held him for trial
Attempts to Delay Trial.
Reports were current yesterday
that a determined attempt will be
made to delay the trial Of Brainard
until after the extraordinary grand
jury has completed its investigation
of Mayor Hylan's administration. In
the ordinary course of procedure
Brainard should be arraigned for
pleading next week and be brought
to trial before the middle of next
month.
The grand jury Is preparing to
take a ten-day recess tomorrow, in
spite of Governor Smiths demand
that they get down to work. This
would carry all pending proceedings
over until Monday, December %. leav-
ing but three days before the New
Year holidays. As the extraordinary
grand jury's investigation is not yet
actually under way, and no counsel is
serving. IL may be months before its
proceedings are finished.
II the Brainard trial is delayed tin
then, the city will witness the spec
tacle of a juror trying to ferret out
vice among public officials, while
himself on bail charged with selling
criminally obscene literature.
1000 Copie. Were Printed.
John S. Sumner, secretary Of the
Society for the Suppression OF Vice.
which brought the complaint against
! Brainard, said last night that about
1000 copies of Madeleine" were
in the raid on Harper & Bros. but
the salacious story was spread
throughout the whole country.
Secretary Sumner said that many
more would undoubtedly have been
sent out only that production was
stopped partly by the printers strike
and partly by the promptness Of the
society in raiding the bindery and
Confiscating the stock.
"MadeIeine" in School Board.
Commissioner of Accounts Hirsh-
field assigned two men yesterday to
trail the cat who is on the board Of
education pay roll for $3.50 mainte-
nance. Mr.. Hirschfield said:
I've learned there are two cats,
one bearing the now not very popu-
lar name Madeleine and another
named Robert / have assigned my
best sleuths to running down this
'overshadowing crime and expect
that the victory of uncovering it will