Prejudices, fifth seriesMencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
History
Prejudices, fifth series
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
American essays -- 20th century; American literature -- History and criticism; Literature -- History and criticism
This newspaper woman, whose kindness covered city infidels as well as
Alpine Christians, offered to take me back in the hills to a place
where the old-time religion was genuinely on tap. The Scopes jury,
she explained was composed mainly of its customers, with a few Dayton
sophisticates added to leaven the mass. It would thus be instructive to
climb the heights and observe the former at their ceremonies. The trip,
fortunately, might be made by automobile. There was a road running out
of Dayton to Morgantown, in the mountains to the westward, and thence
beyond. But foreigners, it appeared, would have to approach the sacred
grove cautiously, for the upland worshipers were very shy, and at the
first sight of a strange face they would adjourn their orgy and slink
into the forest. They were not to be feared, for God had long since
forbidden them to practice assassination, or even assault, but if they
were alarmed a rough trip would go for naught. So, after dreadful
bumpings up a long and narrow road, we parked our car in a little
woodpath a mile or two beyond the tiny village of Morgantown, and made
the rest of the approach on foot, deployed like skirmishers. Far off
in a dark, romantic glade a flickering light was visible, and out of
the silence came the rumble of exhortation. We could distinguish the
figure of the preacher only as a moving mote in the light: it was like
looking down the tube of a dark-field microscope. Slowly and cautiously
we crossed what seemed to be a pasture, and then we crouched down along
the edge of a cornfield, and stealthily edged further and further. The
light now grew larger and we could begin to make out what was going on.
We went ahead on all fours, like snakes in the grass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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