r
Fen cken
AND HIS LATEST WORK--"PREJU.
DICES-SECOND SERIES"
(Continued from Page One) 1
'Mencken is the greatest American
critic since Poe. It seems that the
French remember better than we that
Poe was somewhat of a criticin his
day.
G. K. Chesterton of England, Benja-
min DeCasseres, and James Huneker
of America have paid him due tribute.
I might mention that the University
library has a number of Mencken's
books ,therein-and that one of them
bears the shocking title "Damn."
Thus fortified I proceed. Mr.
Mencken's new book is "Prejudices,
Second Series," and of all the critiques
I ,have ever read it best sums up the
literary abasia - of the country. One
seeks the cause of our fruitless, spum-
ing efforts and one generally goes
down, kickin'g convisively. A great
-confusion assails the searching per-
son, a welter of nonsense, the humbug
of idealists and right-thinkers. But
not Mencken. 'How he breasted the
terrific current of bosh is beyond me.
Says Mr. Mencken: "I describe the
optimistic, the inspirational, the Au-
thors' League, the popular magazines,
the peculiarly American school. In
character creation its masterpiece is
the advertising agent who, by devis-
ing some new and super-imbecile
boob-trap, puts his hook-and-eye fac-
tory 'on the map,' ruins all other fac-
tories, marries the daughter of the
boss, and so ends as an eminent man.
Obviously. * * * Sunday-school drama,
puerile and disgusting drama."
No Mollycoddle
Personally, I always enjoy the flay-
ing of the near-great. Wherefore I
enjoy Mencken, for he is no molly-
coddle, as some of our national mal-
kins of rhetorical pursuits can attest.
No rolling, platitudinizing sonorous-
ness is Mencken's; he uses the scourge
more often than the laurel wreath.
His language is sharp and quick with
an acceleration at the end of each sen-
tence; there is no dropping off, no
questioning inflexion marking the end
of his missile's flight. It crashes to
the mark in. deadly fashion, and the
game struggles weakly and lies still.
"Prejudices, Second Series," dis-
closes the three strata of American
literature: the upper stratum, none
too good, the middle layer worse, and
the lowest level worse yet.
1 i "".
ARRICK
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