tion of four million and 4.50 members to a family, we pay a
fraction less than $3 per head, and about $13.50 for a family, a year
for police protection in this enlightened Christian (750,000 of us are
Jews, but ours is a Christian city) city of ours. I'd give that silver
watch of mine away and mind my own business if I thought it would come
cheaper, but it won't do. H. H. Rogers is my brother and keeper, and he
insists he needs protection, and I must pay for it, so what can I do?
I've told him I'm a peaceful, propertyless man with no higher ambition
than to love my fellow-man--and woman, and mind my own business; but his
reply has invariably been, "I'm Dr. Tarr, and my system prevails in this
lunatic asylum!" I recognize the logic of his argument all right and
continue to pay for his protection and feel grateful for the privilege
of grumbling a little now and again.

COMSTOCKERY

By JOHN R. CORYELL

Be it understood that the shocking thing which we know as Comstockery,
goes back into the centuries for its origin; being, indeed, the perfect
flower of that asceticism, which was engrafted on the degraded
Christianity which took its name from Christ without in the least
comprehending the spirit of his lofty conception.

The man Comstock, who has the shameful distinction of having lent his
name to the idea of which he is the willing and probably the fit
exponent, may be dismissed without further consideration, since he is,
after all, only the inevitable as he is the deplorable result of that
for which he stands; seemingly without any sense of the shame and the
awfulness of it.

It may be said, too, in dismissing him, that it is of no consequence
whether the very unpleasant stories current concerning him are true or
not. It is altogether probable that a man who stands for what he does
and who glories in proclaiming the things he does, will also do things
for which he does not stand and which he does not proclaim. That is a
characteristic of most of us and only proves that, after all, he is not
less than human.

The only point that need be made in regard to the man who is proud of
representing Comstockery is, that if he had not done so, some other lost
soul would. In that sad stage of our social growth when death was the
penalty for most infractions of the law, an executioner could always be
found who took pride in his work and who seemed to be beyond the reach
of the scorn, the abhorrence and the contempt of hi