Traps for the Young.

xii, [7]-253 pp, 10-page publisher catalog follows text. Olive cloth, gilt titles, black and gold decorations. Frontispiece by A.B. Davis seems to draw a relationship between newstands and serious crimes such as arson and armed robbery. "'The world is the devil's hunting-ground, and children are his choicest game.' Thus spoke Anthony Comstock (1844-1915), self-styled guardian of the moral purity of youth... During the forty-one years of his anti-vice - especially anti-obscenity - crusade he was responsible for the arrest of more than 3,600 men, women, and children. Comstock wrote Traps for the Young to publicize his activities during his first ten years of operations, and to justify his methods, which, according to his critics, verged on entrapment. The traps Comstock attacked so ferociously are first of all light literature... theaters... rum traps, gambling traps, advertising traps, free-love traps, liberal traps, and even prize-candy traps." Comstock was a moral crusader who worked to enforce laws against obscenity and vice. In his book, he warned young people about the dangers of what he considered immoral and indecent behavior, including pornography, gambling, and prostitution. Comstock argued that such behavior could lead to physical and moral decay, ruin, and death. He also advised parents to monitor their children's activities and to educate them about the importance of leading a virtuous life. Comstock's book was part of a larger movement in the late 19th century to regulate and control public morality in the United States. Comstock himself was opposed to obscene literature, abortion, contraception, masturbation, gambling, prostitution, and patent medicine, and used his position as a United States Postal Inspector to confiscate what he considered morally questionable materials. He was also secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV).