The American Credo: A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National MindMencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
General
The American Credo: A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
American wit and humor; National characteristics, American
That whenever Prohibition is enforced in a region populated by negroes,
they take to morphine, heroin and other powerful drugs, and begin
murdering all of the white inhabitants.
Sec.449
That all the great writers of the world now use typewriters.
Sec.450
That all Presidents of the United States get many hot tips on the
stock-market, but that they are too honourable to play them, and so turn
them over to their wives, who make fortunes out of them.
Sec.451
That Elihu Root is an intellectual giant, and that it is a pity the
suspicion of him among farmers makes it impossible to elect him
President.
Sec.452
That no man not a sissy can ever learn to thread a needle or darn a
sock.
Sec.453
That all glass blowers soon or late die of consumption.
Sec.454
That all women who go in bathing at the French seaside resorts affect
very naughty one-piece bathing suits.
Sec.455
That George M. Cohan and Irving Berlin can only play the piano with one
finger.
Sec.456
That farmers always go into gold mine swindles because of the
magnificently embossed stock certificates.
Sec.457
That the Germans eat six regular meals a day, and between times stave
off their appetite with numerous Schweitzer cheese sandwiches, blutwurst
and beer.
Sec.458
That David Belasco teaches his actresses how to express emotion by
knocking them down and pulling them around the stage by the hair.
Sec.459
That only Americans travel in the first class carriages of foreign
railway trains, and that fashionable Englishmen always travel third
class.
Sec.460
That the whiskey sold in blind pigs contains wood alcohol and causes
those who drink it to go blind.
Sec.461
That wealthy society women never wear their pearl necklaces in public,
but always keep them at home in safes and wear indistinguishable
imitations instead.
Sec.462
That the late Charles Yerkes had no less than twenty girls, for each of
whom he provided a Fifth Avenue mansion and a yearly income of $50,000.
Sec.463
That when one goes to a railroad station to meet some one, the train is
never on time.
Sec.464
That the theatregoers in the Scandinavian countries care for nothing but
Ibsen and Strindberg.
Sec.465
That all doctors write prescriptions illegibly.
Sec.466
That Englishwomen are very cold.
Sec.467
That when the weather man predicts rain it always turns out fair, and
that when he predicts fair it always rains.
Sec.468
That lemon juice will remove freckles.
Sec.469
That if a woman wears a string of amber beads she will never get a sore
throat.
Sec.470
That no well-bred person ever chews gum.
Sec.471
That all actors sleep till noon, and spend the afternoon calling on
women.
Sec.472
That the men who make sauerkraut press it into barrels by jumping on it
with their bare feet.
Sec.473
That the moment a nigger gets eight dollars, he goes to a dentist and
has one of his front teeth filled with gold.
Sec.474
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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