An article in favour of freedom of the Press reprinted from the Boston's
_Woman's Journal_.
An article by Lady Florence Dixie reprinted from a Scottish county paper.
* * * * *
On one occasion the editor of _Lucifer_ had occasion to mention that
adultery and fornication had not been criminal offences in England since
1660. The authorities were so aghast at the idea of this information being
allowed to creep out that they insisted on the passage being deleted. It
was.
* * * * *
Further. The Editor of an American paper, on it being suggested to him
that he should reprint portions of a criticism of "Measure for Measure,"
by Mr. A.B. Walkley in the _Times_, refused to do so for fear of
prosecution. Perhaps the most truly American instance of all is the
misfortune that befell the Reverend Mabel McCoy Irwin. The excellent lady
began to publish a paper advocating strict chastity for both sexes. It was
excluded from the mails on the ground that no allusion to sex could be
tolerated. I reckon this anecdote to be the most exquisitely perfect of
all anecdotes that I have ever come across in the diverting history of
moral censorships. There is a subtle flavour about that name, Mabel McCoy
Irwin, which is indescribably apposite ... McCoy. It is a wonderful world!
I am much indebted to an American correspondent for these delights.