United States v. Males

• Decision Date: 15 June 1892
• Docket Number: 4,605.
• Citation: 51 F. 41
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. MALES.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Indiana

51 F. 41

UNITED STATES v. MALES.

No. 4,605.

United States District Court, D. Indiana.

June 15, 1892

Smiley N. Chambers, for the United States.

Herod &amp Herod, for defendant.

BAKER District Judge.

This is a prosecution for sending obscene matter through the mail. The defendant wrote on the margin of a valentine the following:

'You can keep this to wipe your dirty a-- on, and spend your money to pay your debts, or have your picture taken again in men's clothing. We can prove you sent them for slander.'

The valentine with this writing on it was inclosed in a sealed envelope addressed to one Cora Anderson, and was sent to her through the mail. The counsel for the defendant contend that the writing does not constitute a public offense. They insist that the use of merely coarse, vulgar, or insulting language mailed in a sealed envelope, is not made criminal by the statute; and that to make the writing criminal it must have a tendency to corrupt the morals, or to excite unchaste desires and impure thoughts. On the other hand, the counsel for the government maintains that any writing which is vulgar or indecent, regardless of its tendency to corrupt the morals or to excite impure desires, falls within the condemnation of the statute. The statute under which the indictment is drawn is as follows:

'Sec. 3893. Every obscene, lewd, or lascivious book, pamphlet, picture, paper, letter, writing, print, or other publication of an indecent character, and every article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion, and every article or thing intended or adopted for any indecent or immoral use, and every written or printed card, letter, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind giving information, directly or indirectly, where or how, or of whom, or by what means, any of the hereinbefore mentioned matters, articles, or things may be obtained or made, whether sealed as first-class matter or not, are hereby declared to be nonmailable matter, and shall be conveyed in the mails, not delivered from any post office nor by any letter carrier; and any person who shall knowingly deposit, or cause to be deposited, for mailing or delivery, anything declared by this section to be nonmailable matter, and any person who shall knowingly take the same, or cause the same to be taken, from the mails for the purpose of circulating or disposing of, or of aiding in the circulation or disposition of, the same, shall for each and every offense be fined, upon conviction thereof, not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned at hard labor not more than five years, or both, at the discretion of the court.' 1 Supp.Re.St.p. 621.

Obscenity committed in certain ways was an offense indictable at common law, and the statutes enacted upon the subject only operate as an enlargement of the scope of the term, and define it more specifically. They create no new offense. Com. v Sharpless, 2 Serg.& R. 101; Com. v. Holmes, 17 Mass. 336; Reg. v. Bradlaugh, 2 Q.B.Div. 569, 3 Q.B.Div. 607; 1 Bish.Crim.Law, § 500. Statutes against obscenity should receive a reasonable construction, having regard to the manifest object had in view of their enactment. The obvious purpose of their enactment is to guard and protect the public morals, by erecting barriers which the evil-minded and lascivious may not overpass with impunity. As the statute is highly penal, it ought not to be held to embrace language unless it is fairly within its letter and spirit. U.S. v. Gaylord, 17 F. 438; Thomas v. State, 103 Ind. 419, 2 N.E. 808; Dillard v. State, 41 Ga. 278; Bell v. State, 1 Swan, 42; Henderson v. State, 63 Ala. 193; State v. Toole, 106 N.C. 736, 11 S.E. 168. Obscenity is such indecency as is calculated to promote the violation of the law and the general corruption of morals. 2 Whart.Crim.Law, § 1431. It is applied to language spoken, written, or printed, or to pictorial productions, and includes what is immodest and indecent, and is calculated to excite impure desires, or to corrupt the mind. U.S. v. Loftis, 12 F. 671. The test is whether the tendency of the matter is to deprave and corrupt the morals of those whose minds are open to such influences, and into whose hands such matter may fall. The writing need not use words which are in themselves obscene, in order to be obscene. Courts have regard to the idea conveyed by the words used in the writing, and not simply to the words themselves. Obscenity is that form of indecency which is calculated to promote the general corruption of morals. 'Lewdness' and 'lasciviousness' are that form of immorality which has relation to sexual impurity. U.S. v. Bennett, 16 Blatchf. 362. The words 'obscene,' 'lewd,' and 'la...