So early as 1876 a national organization
demanding a reasonable amendment of the postal laws got on its legs; in
the late eighties "Citizen" George Francis Train defied the whirlwind by
printing the Old Testament as a serial; many indignant victims,
acquitted by some chance in the courts, brought suit against Comstock
for damages. Moreover, an occasional judge, standing out boldly against
the usual intimidation, denounced him from the bench; one of them, Judge
Jenkins, accused him specifically of "fraud and lying" and other
"dishonest practices."[53] But the spirit of American Puritanism was on
his side. His very extravagances at once stimulated and satisfied the
national yearning for a hot chase, a good show--and in the complaints of
his victims, that the art of letters was being degraded, that the
country was made ridiculous, the newspaper-reading populace could see no
more than an affectation. The reform organization of 1876 lasted but
five years; and then disbanded without having accomplished anything;
Train was put on trial for "debauching the young" with an "obscene"
serial;[54] juries refused to bring in punitive verdicts against the
master showman.
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