An Infidel Abroad.

AN INFIDEL ABROAD, A SERIES OF LETTERS WRITTEN WHILE ON A TEN WEEKS’ VISIT TO EUROPE, by D. M. Bennett. This is a book that covers more than the description of a trip to Europe, this man, D. M. Bennett, was a leader in the Freethought movement in America, the Editor and owner of the leading Freethought magazine in America, and a forceful Author of several of the most important Freethought books ever written. For a small taste of Mr. Bennett's writing I will quote from the: "PREFACE: From the years of my boyhood I have felt a strong desire to see the countries of Europe, but since I have come to the age of manhood I either have. been too poor to afford the necessary amount of money or too busy to spare the time. Within the past ten months the Freethinkers of Europe decided to hold an International Congress at Brussels in the latter part of August last, and many thousands of my Liberal friends desired me to go as a delegate to represent them, and furnished a portion of the money necessary to make the journey. This gave me au excellent opportunity for visiting Europe, and afforded a portion of the scrip to put in my purse to pay expenses. But for this I probably should never have crossed the Atlantic. Besides the foregoing reasons I felt that I was entitled to a few weeks’ recreation. I had served out a severe sentence of thirteen months’ imprisonment in the Albany Penitentiary, upon the false charge of sending indecent literature through the mail. The arrest and conviction were Brought about at the instance and by the conniving of an ecclesiastical society with a view to destroying my influence, crushing my paper, THE TRUTH SEEKER, and suppressing my line of publications. This effort was made with the advice of prominent clergymen of this city and their supporters; and after I was placed behind the bars some of the leading clergy were so filled with joy in the contemplation of the event that they almost parted with their sepses and acted in a public religious meeting like Idiots. I was convicted for mailing a copy of a small pamphlet by E. H. Heywood, called “Cupid’s Yokes,” which is an essay of an argumentative character to show that the current marriage system has its evils, and does not yield the most harmonious results in the relations of the sexes. The writer does not believe that the marriage institution of to-day is the best possible one that can be devised, and he points out prominent evils connected with it. There is but little in his essay that is new, or that had not been said hundreds of times before; a large share of the pamphlet is made up of quotations from other writers, and contains many excellent suggestions. I took no special interest in the little pamphlet, neither indorsing it nor condemning it; but as a bookseller sold it to those who wished it, as I would any other work, as I had an undoubted right to do, and as numerous other booksellers have done. My trial, in the United States Circuit Court was a most unfair one. The base informer and principal witness, the agent of the society alluded to, who caused my arrest, was Anthony Comstock; the judge before whom I was tried was Charles L. Benedict, both members of a Calvinistic church. The judge, as Comstock boasts, always secures the conviction of the unfortunate victims which he, Comstock, brings before him. The judge’s rulings and charge were extremely unfair toward me, evincing a settled determination to secure my conviction. My Counsel wished to prove by forty or more competent and expert witnesses, philologists, authors, publishers, and literary men, that the work is not obscene. Judge Benedict would not permit it. My counsel wished to read the entire pamphlet, consisting of twenty-three pages to the jury that they might see the true character of it. This the judge prohibited. My counsel then wished to show by comparison that many other works by standard authors, found in all the libraries of our country, and sold by all book dealers, are far more objectionable than the pamphlet under question. This was also positively refused The charge of the judge to the jury was virtually an order to them to bring in a verdict of guilty. He gave to the jury a “test of obscenity," which, if generally enforced, would send to prison every bookseller in the United States, and indeed every man who has a copy of the Bible in his possession." This will give a small example of what is to be found in this book. As for the pamphlet, Cupid's Yoke, I have been unable to buy a copy anywhere, but I have found a printout of it on the Web, I will gladly offer this for free download if I can obtain permission to do so. This brief History of Mr. Bennett's prosecution - actually Persecution - is but one incident in the vicious tactics that supernatural religion in general, and Christianity in particular, have used to remove those who cannot accept their ancient non-sense.
Emmett F. Fields