Judge — May 1, 1926 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

tor, Norman Anthony. Assoriate Eiitor The Blind Goddess NEWSDEALER named Felix Cara ss has) been fined $100 for selling the April issueof the American Mercury in Harvard Square, consider for a moment some of the implici fact. The article, “Hatrack.” in the magazine. which complaint had been lodged by the Rev. ase of the Watch and Ward Soc . Frank had already re fed azelean Vill of health: [rowse, Baaton judge in an The customers of the guilty newsdealer. to whom he sold the Mereury, are Harv students, The magazine itself, hight appearance and selling for fifly cents a copy, makes its appeal solely to the sophisticated intellectual, No doubt it was virtually buried on the newsstand under stacks of cheap, gaudy, intimate confessions official hearing. rd professors and conservative in sexy trash advertising, quite legally, the And finally, the bly never looked inside f morbid morons. unfortunate newsdealer had. pr much Te the morals of the young. Put yourself in his ] its covers, suspected it of harboring poison for His name sounds Spanish. Perhaps he’s one of the million and a half Mexicans now spread over the land, hungry for the stability, and justice of thei tempted at time: morality great northern neighbor. THe has been (who hasn't?) to turn bootlegger reap the rich rewards, especially ina college lawlessness that is rarely punished. But he has said to the little woman, “No, I would like to get you adillac. But it’s better to have a safe, respectable little business where they can’t touch you, We'll get our reward some ind town. of a and a Ford. And here it is in the shape of a $100 fine for selling a high-brow magazine to college men. Addition ve already expressed our opinion that “Hat- far from being obscene or tending to corrupt the morals of the young, simply blazes with morality. In other words, it tells a sordid story with infinite iron, its only offense being truth. We doubt if even a profes- sional smut hound could find anything suggestive in it and we still cling to the theory that the Rey. J. Frank Chase thought of it simply as a chance to get even with his friend Mencken. constituted censors. As for the belated ruling of the Post Office barring it from the mails after the entire e distribu Such are the seruples of our self- Department ion had been we can’t help wondering what the Methodist Vatican knows about this feeble political gesture. You William Edgar Fi er, Phil Ro: Dramatic Editor, may remember that “Hatrack” is part of a series by its author. Herbert Asbury, entitled “Up from Methodism.” and that the same issue of the magazine contains a satirical outline of the history of Methodism in the United States. Also that two and two make four. Sacrilege ie N the New York Herald-Tribunc. in the course of a 4 vitriolic attack upon H. L. Mencken, editor of the Mercury, admits there is nothing obscene about “Hatrack.” “In our judgment the article does not deserve suppression on the But then it con- substantial grounds for The portrayal of ated to shock the with a decent regard for the dead. We do not but there ought round of obscenity,” it: says. “There suppression on the score of tinues: however, sacrile vice operating in a cemetery: is ‘i alow feelings of anyone This part of the article is simply revolting. know what the laws of Massachusetts are, surely to be some method of suppressing a public affront to hallowed ground.” Probably en the MHerald-Tribune writer has he the famous book of epitaphs in free verse entitled, “Spoon River Anthology.” by Edgar Lee Masters. In keeping with these epitaphs some ribald soul has parodied one of the stanzas in Gray's * as follows: “Beneath th Helms, that yew tree's sl Where heaves the turf in many a moulderin Each in his narrow cell forever laid, ‘The lewd forefathers of the hamlet sleep.” rd of lose ru If Farmington, Mo.. the scene of “Hatrack,” is any- thing like Spoon River—and th not very far apart ssecration of hallower Quite the contr: ‘ographically—there ground in the story. was no Cary NCIDENTALLY, Terbert: Asbury, the author of ‘Hat- rack,” is, or was, a reporter on the erald-Tribunc, where no doubt he acquired the habit. of accuracy dis- played in his story. 24 wt we wees a few days of its tirade against Mencken and Hat the Herald-Tribune printed the report of a liquor seizure in which the dry raiders used a cemetery for purposes of ambush. Now that was sacrilege. * ry * “Te SRE ought surely to be some method of suppressing a public affront (of that nature) to hallowed ground.” WM. HW. comicbooks.com