The modern professional prudes are lazy ineffectual people compared with their great
forerunner, Anthony
Comstock. Peter Fryer has pointed out in his book "The Birth Controllers" that
from its inception in 1873 to the
end of 1882, Comstock's New York Society for the Suppression of Vice was responsible for
700 arrests 333
sentences of imprisonment totalling 155 years and 13 days, fines totalling $65,256, and the
seizure of 27,856 lb.
of "obscene" books and 64,836 "articles for immoral use, of rubber, etc." Much of Comstock's
battle was against
the use of artificial contraceptive precautions. The prudes have lost that fight: today they
struggle to campaign
on other fronts.