The Washington herald., 1921-08-28

A Young Man Of Forty.
What is II. l. Mencken like?
Forty years lightly carried; a calm
and wide blue eye; a calm and
steady flow Of words; sturdy figure
of medium height; purrs of blue
smoke. The face broad, rather
heayy-jawed: Of the type known as
honest" unruly hair parted in the
middle: the expression open ana
friendly. A competent ana success
full newspaper man, in his shirt
sleeves, with his feet cooked on his
work table and a corn-cob with a
two-foot stem, entirely free of af-
fectation-
What 4 Contrast to the Mencken
of the printed page; This writer
fellow turns from throwing a stone
thr ough Charles N. Schwab's win
dow to take a vicious swipe at a
soapbox orator only to pick the
Socialist up and buy him a lunch.
He Is a fellow Of tremendous vitality
and joy in living: a man of the
most startling refexes: a convuls-
ing buffoon, thumbing his nose and
shouting Obscene" at the Puri-
tans who would send him to reform
school He openly ogIes the girls.
tears down the Baptist church sign
and substitutes one of his own.
takes a long pull from a brown bot
tie. knocks off the mayors silk hat.
shouts in through the schooIhouse
window and defies the yokeIs lin
ing the road.
The Plafn Citizen
After reading some of his books
and following his Converse tions"
with George Jean Nathan in their
magazine. The Smart Set, one ex-
poets to find him at least a refined
snOb; one expects something bitter
in his expression, a curse now ano
then, a sneer behind the laugh, bit
ing wit. In short one expects to
find him disagreeable.
But only the calm blue eye and
the drifting blue clouds of smoke.
Mencken seems a most social sort
of person. not at all aloof. not de-
sirous OF scintilating. In fact. he
is most disappointingIy pleasant
matter-of-fact and human. All his
posturing is done with the tiny type
writer that sits on his table. When
mask and his cap and bells. Menck-
en- is poser in the sense that he's
q problem. Whether he's a poseur
-.--..Tay be postponed to another
paragraph.
A Religious Papers Tribute.
The Christian Register. welcom-
ing Mencken's criticism of the de
fects of a soft Christianity" says
OF him:
"As a lad he had ideas-and the
language to match them He was
born for iconoclasm, though his in
Inmates know him in every day re-
lations for a most ordinary, whole
some. genial fellow, Tno is as fun
of goodwill and generous deeds as
his printed words are full of brill
liant s,athing and powerful con-
tempt, even to the point of ridicule.
A little of the poseur may be in
his wock. but it is not in him as
companion and friend. And what
he is doing for our country, not in
the field of letters only. but in the
whole domain of what we call cul-
ture. is of such great value that one
would be a foolish reader of Mr..
Aencken to toss him aside for his
Nietzschean excesses as a danger
Gus citizen"
Mencken's few photographs add
70 the general impression that he is
hard-boiled. When his features are
IN repose there is a sort of bellig-
erency about them. And perhaps
he dislikes photographers.
An easy talker. he never makes
speeches. Words come smoothly to
him from the shelves of his mai
velous vocabulary. The Young Wis.,
tier found his conversation less full
of Menckenesque phrases than his
writing, but perhaps he was aiming
low. One characteristic Of his
enunciation is a certain sibilance.
There is no Southern twapg.
The Mencken smithy.
The critic works in a third-fioor
room, opening onto sleeping
porch. He sits in the center at an
odd table. using a fiyweight type
writer and throwing rejected con-
tributions on the floor in their en-
velopes. ready for mailingI Around
him are several cases of books, a
lounge. an easy chair or two, and
on the walls miscellany of
sketches. paintings and cartoons.
One recognizes his features In a
Uniformed youth on a cigar-poster
about to pitch a baseball. (His
father was In the wholesale tobacco
business). In this room he reads
all the manuscripts received by the
magazine. selecting for Nathan's
concurrence those that will pass.
The magazine Is published in New
York, hut edited both in New York
and Baltimore. Each editor has
full veto over matter submitted,
but it IS very seldom that they dis
agree.
Here at his left is a pile of books
for review. Before him Is the
manuscript of a book he Is rewrit- |
ing. On top that case is the COM
pleted manuscript for the new edi- |
tion OF THE American Language"
announced by Knopf for fall. In |
preparation Is a new edition of TN |
Defense of Women" and "Preju-
dices: Third Series." will be pub |
lished in the spring.
Mencken Is a regular contributor |
to the Nation and the Baltimore |
Evening Sun. In addition to The
Smart Set Despite his denial he
accOmplishes tremendous amount
of work.
An Unshackler.
Mencken- is anti-Christian and /
anti-democratic, an individualist /
and a libertarian. He Is n cynic as
to marriage. and has remained un-
married. He Is most of an anti l.