The tender morality of the community would not allow a public
discussion.

It was said, at the time, that when the representative of a society
for the suppression of vice called on one member asking him to
introduce the bill, he declined to do so on the ground that he
represented a Fifth Avenue District and it would make him too
unpopular among his constituents. When the bill had been introduced by
another member and came up for final passage, it was decided, since
Governor Hughes had vetoed many political bills of members of both
houses, to put him in a dilemma. If the bill were presented to him he
would have to sign an absurd statute or declare himself the friend of
unrighteousness. He signed it and the bill became a law. Since its
enactment there have been ridiculously few convictions under it.

The successive carelessness, timidity, and levity of the Legislature
is depressing, but there is an encouraging increase of interest on the
part of the public. The average man is not merely interested in the
problem; he appears to take the sensible view that the "social evil"
is not so much a moral question as a condition, a problem to be met
like other problems. We have become less concerned with the private
morals of our fellow citizens than with their health, safety, and the
prevention of unnecessary suffering. We perceive that the courts are
only our agents and are not directly responsible for what they do;
they are following instructions given by our ancestors and which we
have neglected to abolish or modify.

The visitor leaves the Night Court with a strange sense of having his
social values overthrown. He feels almost sympathetic with the women