nd behind them there is always the steady
pressure of Puritan prejudice--the Puritan feeling that "immorality" is
the blackest of crimes, and that its practitioner has no rights. It was
by making use of these elements that Comstock achieved his prodigies,
and it is by making use of them that his heirs and assigns keep up the
sport today. Their livelihood depends upon the money they can raise
among the righteous, and the amount they can raise depends upon the
quality of the entertainment they offer. Hence their adept search for
shining marks. Hence, for example, the spectacular raid upon the Art
Students' League, on August 2, 1906. Hence the artful turning to their
own use of the vogue of such sensational dramatists as Eugene Brieux and
George Bernard Shaw, and of such isolated plays as "Trilby" and "Sapho."
Hence the barring from the mails of the inflammatory report of the
Chicago Vice Commission--a strange, strange case of dog eating dog.

But here we have humour. There is, however, no humour in the case of a
serious author who sees his work damaged and perhaps ruined by a
malicious and unintelligent attack, and himself held up to public
obloquy as one with the vendors of pamphlets of flagellation and filthy
"marriage guides." He finds opposing him a flat denial of his decent
purpose as an artist, and a stupid and ill-natured logic that baffles
sober answer.[72] He finds on his side only the half-hearted support of
a publisher whose interest in a single book is limited to his profits
from it, and who desires above all things to evade a nuisance and an
expense. Not a few publishers, knowing the constant possibility of
sudden and arbitrary attack, insert a clause in their contracts whereby
an author must secure them against damage from any "immoral" matter in
his book. They read and approve the manuscript, they print the book and
sell it--but if it is unlucky enough to attract the comstockian
lightning, the author has the whole burden to bear,[73] and if they
seek safety and economy by yielding, as often happens, he must consent
to the mutilation or even the suppression of his work. The result is
that a writer in such a situation, is practically beaten before he can
offer a defence. The professional book-baiters have laws to their
liking, and courts pliant to their exactions; they fill the newspapers
with inflammatory charges before the accused gets his day in court; they
have the aid of prosecuting officers who fear the