NAUGHTY RABELAIS!

And now comes the news that "The United States Government, through accredited representatives, holds that the classic works of Rabelais are obscene, indecent and immoral and likely to corrupt the public"! Shades of Romanticism and Dean Swift! Rabelais is damned forever!

Perhaps the general moral uplift following the War is responsible; or perhaps the Government has just recently learned to read French. At any rate, Gargantua must give way to "The DemiVirgin", as "Caliban" had to yield before "Simon Called Peter". Terence and Horace had better look to their morals, and Boccaccio keep clear of the censor, for a new Battle of Books is brewing. Certainly it is remarkable how the mind of the modern generation is kept pure and unsullied, and all indecencies removed far beyond it reach. When the act of sending a copy of Rabelais through the postoffice will finally be made illegal, we shall have reached the acme of perfection. The motto "Honi Soit--" is out of date, anyway.

But maybe our sarcasm is thoughtless. The government has many things to worry it. And we must remember the morals of the marines who guard the mails!