11. Reigen
box 19/1
HEMSTREET
96 WARREN STREET
NEW YORK CITY
NOVS 1930
N V WORLD
MOVE TO CLEAR CLERK
IN OBSCENE B0OK SALE
Rehearmg to Be Asked on
Ground That He Had Not
Read“Hands Around'
K. Henry Rosenberg, attorney for
Philip Pesky, clerk in Schulte’s book
store at 82 Fourth Avenue, who was
convicted Nov. 18, 1929 of the sale
of an indecent book, Arthur Schnitz¬
ler’s Hands Around,“ announced
yesterday that he will apply to the
Court of Appeals for atrehearing Nov
24. He will argue for a reversal of
the suspended sentence imposed on
Pesky in Special Sessions and upheld
by the Court of Appeals on the
ground that the clerk wes unaware of
the contents of the bock he sold te
agents of John S. Sumner’s New York
Society for the Suppression of Vice.
Under the present very sweeping
Mr. Rosenberg told The
ruling,
World, “a conviction is upheld based
on the mere possession and sale of
a book held to be obscene, irrespec¬
tive of ithe seller’s knowledge of the
character of the book. As a result,
the book trade does not know where
it stands. We hope to obtain some
expression of opinion from the Court
of Appeals on the status of the cierk
who sold the book without knowledge
of its character.“
Mr. Sumner sald yesterday that
should the rehearing be granted, the
society will oppose a ruling excul¬
pating Pesky.
We would never get another con¬
viction under such an opinion,“ he
asserted.
AFFIRMS CONVICTION‘ —
IN ·HANDS AROUND' CASE
AlbanzCeurt Adjudges Book
Indecent, Considering Ouly
Law and Not Facts.
Special to The New York Times.
ALBANY, Oct. 24.—The Court of
Appeals adjudged Arthur Schnitzler’s
book Hands Around'' as indecent
today. In affirming the conviction
of Philip Pesky, a clerk in a New
York book store, of possessing an
indecent book the court wrote a per
curiam opinion, as follows:
This court is a court of review,
restricted in cases of this order to
1ouncement of the law and
pre
r to act as a trier of
without pow
facts. If those charged with
ass judgment upon
the duty
night sav not unrea¬
fac
th
it the book sold by the
sonably
as obscene, lewd or
defenda
rond a reasonable doubt
indecent
(Penal Law 11, 41) we are not
at liberty to substitute our judg¬
to supersede
ment for theirs, o
their function as the spokesman of
the thought and sentiment of the#
community in applying to the book
complained of tne standard of pro¬
priety established by the statute. A
different question would be here if
we could say as a matter of law that
the writing is so innocuous as to for¬
bid the submission of its quality to
the triers of the facts. We cannot
say that here. The judgment shall
be affirmed.“
Pesky, who received a suspended
sentence, was arrested after ne had
Hands Around' to
sold a copy of!
Charles J. Bamberger, a special
agent of the New York Society for
the Suppression of Vice.
box 19/1
HEMSTREET
96 WARREN STREET
NEW YORK CITY
NOVS 1930
N V WORLD
MOVE TO CLEAR CLERK
IN OBSCENE B0OK SALE
Rehearmg to Be Asked on
Ground That He Had Not
Read“Hands Around'
K. Henry Rosenberg, attorney for
Philip Pesky, clerk in Schulte’s book
store at 82 Fourth Avenue, who was
convicted Nov. 18, 1929 of the sale
of an indecent book, Arthur Schnitz¬
ler’s Hands Around,“ announced
yesterday that he will apply to the
Court of Appeals for atrehearing Nov
24. He will argue for a reversal of
the suspended sentence imposed on
Pesky in Special Sessions and upheld
by the Court of Appeals on the
ground that the clerk wes unaware of
the contents of the bock he sold te
agents of John S. Sumner’s New York
Society for the Suppression of Vice.
Under the present very sweeping
Mr. Rosenberg told The
ruling,
World, “a conviction is upheld based
on the mere possession and sale of
a book held to be obscene, irrespec¬
tive of ithe seller’s knowledge of the
character of the book. As a result,
the book trade does not know where
it stands. We hope to obtain some
expression of opinion from the Court
of Appeals on the status of the cierk
who sold the book without knowledge
of its character.“
Mr. Sumner sald yesterday that
should the rehearing be granted, the
society will oppose a ruling excul¬
pating Pesky.
We would never get another con¬
viction under such an opinion,“ he
asserted.
AFFIRMS CONVICTION‘ —
IN ·HANDS AROUND' CASE
AlbanzCeurt Adjudges Book
Indecent, Considering Ouly
Law and Not Facts.
Special to The New York Times.
ALBANY, Oct. 24.—The Court of
Appeals adjudged Arthur Schnitzler’s
book Hands Around'' as indecent
today. In affirming the conviction
of Philip Pesky, a clerk in a New
York book store, of possessing an
indecent book the court wrote a per
curiam opinion, as follows:
This court is a court of review,
restricted in cases of this order to
1ouncement of the law and
pre
r to act as a trier of
without pow
facts. If those charged with
ass judgment upon
the duty
night sav not unrea¬
fac
th
it the book sold by the
sonably
as obscene, lewd or
defenda
rond a reasonable doubt
indecent
(Penal Law 11, 41) we are not
at liberty to substitute our judg¬
to supersede
ment for theirs, o
their function as the spokesman of
the thought and sentiment of the#
community in applying to the book
complained of tne standard of pro¬
priety established by the statute. A
different question would be here if
we could say as a matter of law that
the writing is so innocuous as to for¬
bid the submission of its quality to
the triers of the facts. We cannot
say that here. The judgment shall
be affirmed.“
Pesky, who received a suspended
sentence, was arrested after ne had
Hands Around' to
sold a copy of!
Charles J. Bamberger, a special
agent of the New York Society for
the Suppression of Vice.