Comstockery

At its mildest, this balderdash takes the form of the late Hamilton Wright Mabie's "White List of Books", at its worst, it is comstockery, an idiotic and abominable thing. ❋ Unknown (1919)

In all this dread of free inquiry, this childish skittishness in both writers and public, this dearth of courage and even of curiosity, the influence of comstockery is undoubtedly to be detected. ❋ Unknown (1918)

"Trilby" is assaulted by the united comstockery of a dozen cities, and ❋ Unknown (1918)

I have gone into the anatomy and physiology of militant Puritanism because, so far as I know, the inquiry has not been attempted before, and because a somewhat detailed acquaintance with the forces behind so grotesque a manifestation as comstockery, the particular business of the present essay, is necessary to an understanding of its workings, and of its prosperity, and of its influence upon the arts. ❋ Unknown (1918)

But though the effects of comstockery are thus abominably insane and irritating, the fact is not to be forgotten that, after all, the thing is no more than an effect itself. ❋ Unknown (1918)

Mormons, the hysteria over the Breckenridge-Pollard case and other like causes, the enormous multiplication of moral and religious associations, the spread of zoöphilia, the attack upon Mammon, the dawn of the uplift, and last but far from least, comstockery. ❋ Unknown (1918)

Theoretically, perhaps, many newspaper editors are opposed to comstockery, and sometimes they denounce it with great eloquence, but when a good show is offered they are always in favour of the showman [71] -- and the Comstocks are showmen of undoubted skill. ❋ Unknown (1918)

In comstockery, if I do not err, the new Puritanism gave a sign of its formal departure from the old, and moral endeavour suffered a general overhauling and tightening of the screws. ❋ Unknown (1918)

"Due [to Sam's] comstockery at the [stock exchange], we are now in severe [debt]." ❋ The Puppet Master (2003)