Suppression Epidemic Reappears as Watch and Ward Hounds Descend Upon Felix, Bootlegger of Mercury's "Hatrack"

The arrest of Felix 'aragianes, proprietor of Felix' newsstand on Harvard Square, is the latest stop in the suppression of the April number of the American Mercury. He was arranged in court yesterday morning to answer to preliminary action in a criminal suit against him, but the case was dismissed for two weeks.

The sale of the American Mercury was prohibited on Monday by the action of the Reverend J. Frank Chase of the Boston Watch and Ward Society. Felix was arrested on Tuesday by Cambridge police on a charge of being in possession of books and pamplets of an improper nature. More specifically, he was accused of displaying in his window as for sale copies of the American Mercury. Agents of the Watch and Ward Society seized 18 copies of the magazine, for which he has not been paid.

The action of the police is alleged to have been taken because of a story entitled "Hatrack" which appears in the American Mercury. It was characterized yesterday by Mr. Chase as "one of the most vulgar and degrading articles that has ever appeared in this city." Felix Caragianes, the accused, when questioned last night, replied briefly that he had not read the article in question and that since the agents of the Society had taken every copy he had, he was afraid he would not be able to.

"Hatrack" is written by Herbert Asbury, formerly connected with the staff of the New York World. He has published a book called "Up From Methodism." In the article in question, he contributes a portrait of a harlot of Farmington, Connecticut.