♥ SETH BULLOCK - They say Bullock
was as
genuine as the West that made him! In fact he was one of the most
notable citizens to have lived in Deadwood. Yeah, he owned a hardware
store in the beginning and got roped into being sheriff, but he later
became a friend of President Theodore Roosevelt and was appointed U.S.
Marshal. Folks that knew him said he could outstare a mad cobra or a
rogue elephant. . .
 Seth
Bullock
|
 Al
Swearengen
|
 Alma
& Trixie
|
 Mr.
Wu
|
"Lots of people ask,
"Did they really use cuss words like that?"
Foul language and cuss words have always been popular in American
culture. There's no reason to believe that profanity was invented in
modern times. In fact, in 1876 the nation's crusade against profanity
was in full force.
For example, we know that Calamity Jane was both hard-drinking and
hard-cussing. She was famous for her profanity. One of her
contemporaries heard her say to a little boy she was nursing back to
health, "Go ahead and eat your soup, ya lil bastard!"
The only reason why there's not a lot of dirty words in the literature
from the 1870s is because the Comstock Act of 1873 banned the mailing
of "obscene" material. You couldn't print racy books or use profanity
in newspapers. But that doesn't mean foul language wasn't used
regularly by the masses." --The
Truth About Deadwood
COMSTOCK ACT - Federal statute
passed by
the U.S. Congress in 1873 as an �Act of the Suppression of Trade in,
and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use.�
Named for Anthony Comstock, a zealous crusader against what he
considered to be obscenity, the act criminalized publication,
distribution, and possession of information about or devices or
medications for �unlawful� abortion or contraception. Individuals
convicted of violating the Comstock Act could receive up to five years
of imprisonment with hard labour and a fine of up to $2,000. The act
also banned distribution through the mail and import of materials from
abroad, with provisions for even stronger penalties and fines.
Vestiges of the act endured as the law of the land into the 1990s. In
1971 Congress removed the language concerning contraception, and
federal courts until Roe v. Wade (1973) ruled that it applied only to
�unlawful� abortions. After Roe, laws criminalizing transportation of
information about abortion remained on the books, and, although they
have not been enforced, they have been expanded to ban distribution of
abortion-related information on the Internet. Representative Barney
Frank of Massachusetts introduced legislation in 1997 to repeal
abortion-related elements of federal obscenity law rooted in the
Comstock Act.
|
