containing letters which are being carried contrary to law on board any vessel or on any postal route.” Comstock’s special power under New York State law was in connection with his position as Secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. This Society was incorporated by the New York Legislature in May, 1873,—within six weeks of the passage of the Comstock bill by Congress. Section 3 of the Act of Incorporation states the object of the society to be “the enforcement of the laws for the suppression of the trade in and circulation of obscene literature and illustrations, advertisements, and articles of indecent and immoral use, as it is or may be forbidden by the laws of the State of New York or of the United States.” Section 5 contains an extraordinary provision, which reads this way: “The police force of the city of New York, as well as of other places, where police organizations exist, shall, as occasion may require, aid this corporation, its members or agents, in the enforcement of all laws which now exist or which may hereafter be enacted for the suppression of the acts and offenses designed in Section 3 of this Act.” Note that the police force was to aid the Society, not the Society the Police. An almost incredible further provision in the original Act of Incorporation was that “One half the fines collected through the instrumentality of the Society, or its agent, for the violation of the laws in this act specified, shall accrue to its benefits,”—a provision which fortunately was soon repealed. This unusual sharing of official responsibility for law enforcement between government officials and private citizens was carried still further, by the enactment, two years later, of Section 1145 of the New York Criminal Code, which under the general heading of “Indecency” is subtitled, “_Who may arrest persons violating provisions of this article_” and reads thus: “Any agent of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice upon being designated thereto by the sheriff of any county in the State, may within such county make arrests and bring before any court or magistrate thereof having jurisdiction, offenders found violating the provisions of any law for the suppression of the trade in and circulation of obscene literature and illustrations, advertisements and articles of indecent or immoral use, as it is or may be forbidden by the laws of this State or of the United States.” According to John S. Sumner, the present secretary of the Society, Comstock “_was always deputized_” by the sheriff. “He liked the arresting and all that sort of thing,” said Mr. Sumner with a rather tolerant smile; “I don’t care much for it, myself.”