The Lampblack Pictures

A man mailed a copy of an illustrated paper to a post-office box in answer to a letter that, the defence said, was a decoy. The paper's pictures of women had been partly covered with lampblack that could easily be rubbed off. He was charged under the federal law against depositing obscene, lewd or lascivious publications in the mail. The indictment identified the paper by its title, volume, number and date but did not reproduce the offending pictures. The defence argued that the indictment was defective for not setting out the matter or alleging that he knew it was obscene, that the paper was not in fact obscene, and that he had been drawn in by a decoy.