Unidentified photographer / artist 1873, 18 January Letter from Anthony Comstock
Book page Google Books John Milton Scudder On the Reproductive Organs, and the Veneral (Cincinnati, Wilstach, Balwin & Co., 1878), p.91-94, footnote.
Brooklyn, January 18, 1873.
Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 12th inst., in which you ask for a statement from me in reference to the traffic in obscene literature. In reply, I have been engaged in the suppression of this business since about one year ago. At that time I knew only one place where this business was carried on. The dealer was arrested, his papers " pigeon-holed," and he continued on in the same business, even letting out these vile books at ten cents per week to the youths and children of our public schools. In seeking to procure the arrest of this man again, I was betrayed by a policeman, who has since been dismissed from the service upon my preferring charges against him to our Police Commissioners. After this the Sunday Mercury came out against me, and said, " if I was the Christian man I professed to be, I could find plenty of these men in Ann and Nassau streets and elsewhere." Accordingly, profiting by this hint, and by aid of the numerous advertisements in this same paper, the Day's Doings, the New Varieties, and the Illustrated Police Gazette, I have succeeded in unearthing this hydra-headed monster in part, as you will see by the following statement which, in many respects, might be truthfully increased in quantity. These I have seized and destroyed.
Obscene photographs, stereoscopic and other pictures, more than 182,000; obscene books and pamphlets, more than 5 tons; obscene letter-press in sheets, more than 2 tons; sheets of impure songs, catalogues, handbills, etc., more than 21,000; obscene microscopic watch and knife charms and finger-rings, more than 5,000; obscene negative plates for printing photographs and stereoscopic views, about 625; obscene engraved steel and copper plates, 350; obscene lithographic stones destroyed, 20 ; obscene wood-cut engravings, more than 500; stereotype plates for printing obscene books, more than 5 tons; obscene transparent playing cards, 5,500 to 6,000; obscene and immoral rubber articles, over 30,000; lead moulds for manufacturing rubber goods, twelve sets, or more than 7OO pounds; newspapers seized, about 4,600; letters from all parts of the country, ordering these goods, about 15,000; names of dealers in account books seized, about 6,000; list of names in the hands of dealers, that are sold as merchandise, to forward catalogues and circulars to, independent of letters and account books, seized, more than 7,000; arrest of dealers since Oct. 9, 1871, over 50; publishers, manufacturers and dealers dead since March last, 6.
With the exception of one arrest, this has all been done since the 2d of last March; and with the exception of about three arrests, the whole work has been accomplished by myself, or under my own supervision, so that I know whereof I speak.
There are various ways by which this vile stuff has been disseminated. First, by advertising in the above named papers Some weeks there is not a single advertisement in some of the papers that is not designed either to cheat or defraud, or intended to be a medium of sending out these accursed books and articles. For instance, I have arrested a number of persons, one in particular, who advertised a musical album, to be sent for fifty cents. I sent the fifty cents, and received back a catalogue of obscene books, with the following card attached:
"The album is only a pretense to enable us to forward you a catalogue of our fancy books. Should you order any of these books, your fifty cents will be credited."
It is needless to say, I ordered, then arrested him, locked him up in the New Haven jail, and he has been indicted by the Grand Jury in the United States Court of Connecticut, and now is held in bail for trial. In the same way, by advertising beautiful views or pictures of some celebrated place or person, these men receive answers from innocent persons for these pictures, and among the pictures sent will be one or more of these obscene pictures, and catalogues of these vile books and rubber goods. For be it known that wherever these books go, or catalogues of these books, there you will ever find, as almost indispensable, a complete list of rubber articles for masturbation or for the professed prevention of conception.
Secondly. These abominations are disseminated by these men first obtaining the addresses of scholars and students in our schools and colleges, and then forwarding these circulars. They secure thousands of names in this way, by either sending for a catalogue of schools, seminaries and colleges, under the pretense of sending a child to attend these places, or else by sending out a circular purporting to be getting up a directory of all the scholars and students in schools and colleges in the United States, or of taking the census of all the unmarried people, and offering to pay five cents per name for lists so sent. I need not say that the money is seldom or never sent, but I do say that these names, together with those that come in reply to advertisements, are sold to other parties; so that when a man desires to engage in this nefarious business, he has only to purchase a list of those names, and then your child, be it son or daughter, is as liable to have thrust into its hands, all unbeknown to you, one of these devilish catalogues.
You will please observe that this business is carried on principally by the agency of the United States mails, and there is no law to-day by which we can interfere with the sending out of these catalogues and circulars through the mail, except they are obscene on their face; and there are scores of men that are supporting themselves and families to-day by sending out these rubber goods, etc., through the mails, that I can not touch for want of law. There are men in Philadelphia, in Chicago, in Boston, and other places, who are doing this business, that I could easily detect and convict, if the law was only sufficient. There was one year ago published in and about New York and vicinity, 144 different obscene books. I have seized the stereotyped plates, steel and copper plates, etc., for 142 of these books. There were four publishers on the 2d of last March ; to-day three of these are in their graves, and it is charged by their friends that I worried them to death. Be that as it may, I am sure that the world is better without them. One man, since the year 1842, (according to his account book that I have), has published some eighteen or twenty different books, and has never, to my knowledge, been arrested, but has for years been the victim of black-mail by the detectives of New York city, and in this manner has been practically licensed by them to do this business.
It is with great pleasure that I state, that the refusal of President Grant to pardon those who have been convicted of this offense in the United States Courts, and of Gov. Hoffman those who have been convicted in this State in the State Courts, has sent dismay into the camp of these men, and will go very far toward checking this business. The district-attorney and his deputies are ready to prosecute any and all cases when they are brought to their notice, and there is no question about these men having justice done them if convicted before any of our judges; so that all we want to break up this nefarious business, is a broader law. I present these facts for your consideration
I have the honor to be, with great respect, Sir, your obedient servant,
ANTHONY COMSTOCK
Hon. C. L. Merriam, House of Representatives, Washington.
