Prejudices, fourth seriesMencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
History
Prejudices, fourth series
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
American essays -- 20th century; American literature -- History and criticism; Literature -- History and criticism
The kid who sits in the bucket of tar.... The buxom stewardess who
comes in and inquires archly if one rang.... The humorous piano-tuner
who tunes the grand piano in the music-room in the 15-16ths-tone
scale.... The electric fan which, when a stray zephyr blows in
through the porthole, makes a noise like a dentist’s drill.... The
alien ship’s printer who, in the daily wireless paper, reports a
baseball score of 165 to 3.... The free Christian Science literature
in the reading-room.... The pens in the writing-room.... The elderly
_Grosshändler_ with the young wife.... The red-haired girl in the green
sweater.... The retired bootlegger disguised as a stockbroker....
The stockbroker disguised as a United States Senator.... The
boy who climbs into the lifeboat.... The chief steward wearing
the No. 18³⁄₄ collar.... The mysterious pipes that run along the
stateroom ceilings.... The discovery that one forgot to pack enough
undershirts.... The night watchman who raps on the door at 3.30
A. M. to deliver a wireless message reading “Sorry missed
you. Bon voyage”.... The bartender who adds a dash of witchhazel
to cocktails.... The wilting flowers standing in ice-pitchers and
spittoons in the hallways.... The fight in the steerage.... The old
lady who gets stewed and sends for the doctor.... The news that the
ship is in Long. 43°, 41′, 16″ W, Lat. 40°, 23′, 39″ N.... The report
that the starboard propeller has lost a blade.
5
_The Shrine of Mnemosyne_
The little town of Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands, in a mid-Winter
mist, flat and charming like a Japanese print.... San Francisco and
the Golden Gate from the top of Twin Peaks.... Gibraltar on a Spring
day, all in pastel shades, like the back-drop for a musical comedy....
My first view of the tropics, the palm-trees suddenly bulging out of
the darkness of dawn, the tremendous stillness, the sweetly acid
smell, the immeasurable strangeness.... The Trentino on a glorious
morning, up from Verona to the Brenner Pass.... Central Germany from
Bremen to Munich, all in one day, with the apple trees in bloom....
Copenhagen on a wild night, with the _Polizei_ combing the town for
the American who upset the piano.... Christiania in January, with the
snow-clad statue of Ibsen looming through the gloom like a ghost in a
cellar.... The beach at Tybee Island, with the faint, blood-curdling
rattle of the land-crabs.... Jacksonville after the fire in 1902,
with the hick militiamen firing their machine-guns all night.... The
first inauguration of Woodrow, and the pretty suffragette who drank
beer with me at the Raleigh.... A child playing in the yard of a
God-forsaken town in the Wyoming desert.... Bryan’s farewell speech
at the St. Louis Convention in 1904.... Hampton Court on Chestnut
Sunday.... A New Year’s Eve party on a Danish ship, 500 miles off
the coast of Greenland.... The little pile of stones on the beach of
Watling’s Island, marking the place where Columbus landed.... The moon
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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