A Mae West fansite has published a short note about “When Is It Dirt?,” an article written by Tarkington for Collier’s in 1927. From maewest.blogspot.com:
No less than Booth Tarkington [1869 — 1946] was assigned by Collier’s to write about the arrest of MAE WEST on 9 February 1927.
It used to be said, along the coasts of Bohemia in New York, “To the pure all things are impure,” a shot at the Puritans—was Booth Tarkington’s opening. But even a Bohemian of that day must feel some misgivings now, when he goes to the theatre or reads modern novels and many of the livelier journals, for apparently he has become purified and is in danger of being penetrated by the arrow he himself aimed at the late Mr. Comstock. …
Anthony Comstock [7 March 1844 — 21 September 1915] was a former United States Postal Inspector and politician dedicated to ideas of Victorian morality. In 1873 Comstock created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, an institution dedicated to supervising the morality of the public.
