New York Dispatch

That Fancy Pipe.

A WORK OF ART THAT COMSTOCK SEIZED

Joseph Geigher, aged 19, a messenger of the Stock Exchange, who got hold of his boss's pipe, a work of high art, which Mr. Comstock declared to be an obscene picture, was tried on the charge of exhibiting it.

The witness for Mr. Comstock was Abram Cohen of No. 200 Broome street. He said:-"July 28, between ten and eleven o'clock, I passed through Exchange place. There was a congregation of young men, and this gentleman here (the prisoner) had this pipe showing it. Between three and four o'clock I again met Geigher, and we met some gentlemen; and he (Geigher) opened the case and showed it, and this gentleman (Mr. Britton) said I want both of you, and he pulled both of us down to his office."

Mr. Britton said, on the 28th of July he saw Joseph Geigher hand this pipe to Mr. Purdy, a stock broker. While doing so he went up and said he wanted the pipe. He took it, then took Mr. Purdy's address, and took Cohen and Geigher to his office.

Counsel for the prisoner asked Mr. Britton if there was anything obscene in the carving of that bunch of grass in the woman's hand. He said there was. Counsel asked Mr. Britton if he was not paid $10 by John S. Purdy, the stock broker, to keep away from him. He said no.

Mr. Comstock said the prisoner told him he got the pipe from a Mr. Fox, and refusing to make a complaint against Mr. Fox, he made complaint against Geigher.

Defendant said he never bought the pipe or had it for sale.

"Was it ever taken from you by Mr. Comstock or his demagogues?" asked counsel.

The court held that to be an improper question, and admonished counsel to be more respectful in his examination.

Defendant said the pipe, when seized, was in Mr. Purdy's hands, but had been in his possession before that.

The court found Geigher guilty, and fined him $25. And the work of art appreciated on the Stock Exchange was confiscated.