Chapter I: Front Matter

PREJUDICES
FIFTH SERIES

By H. L. MENCKEN

PUBLISHED AT THE BORZOI · NEW YORK · BY
ALFRED · A · KNOPF

COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

I FOUR MORAL CAUSES, 9
1. Birth Control, 9
2. Comstockery, 15
3. Capital Punishment, 21
4. War, 27

II FOUR MAKERS OF TALES, 34
1. Conrad, 34
2. Hergesheimer, 42
3. Lardner, 49
4. Masters, 56

III IN MEMORIAM: W. J. B., 64

IV THE HILLS OF ZION, 75

V BEETHOVEN, 87

VI RONDO ON AN ANCIENT THEME, 95

VII PROTESTANTISM IN THE REPUBLIC, 104

VIII FROM THE FILES OF A BOOK REVIEWER, 120
1. Counter-Offensive, 120
2. Heretics, 127
3. The Grove of Academe, 133
4. The Schoolma’m’s Goal, 141
5. The Heroic Age, 146
6. The Woes of a 100% American, 152
7. Yazoo’s Favorite, 159
8. The Father of Service, 164
9. A Modern Masterpiece, 169
10. Sweet Stuff, 172

IX THE FRINGES OF LOVELY LETTERS, 175
1. Authorship as a Trade, 175
2. Authors as Persons, 180
3. Birth Pangs, 185
4. Want Ad, 190
5. Literature and the Schoolma’m, 196
6. The Critic and His Job, 202
7. Painting and Its Critics, 208
8. Greenwich Village, 214

X ESSAY IN PEDAGOGY, 218

XI ON LIVING IN BALTIMORE, 237

XII THE LAST NEW ENGLANDER, 244

XIII THE NATION, 255

XIV OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN, 263

XV GOLDEN AGE, 270

XVI EDGAR SALTUS, 277

XVII MISCELLANEOUS NOTES, 283
1. Martyrs, 283
2. The Ancients, 283
3. Jack Ketch as Eugenist, 284
4. Heroes, 286
5. An Historic Blunder, 291
6. On Cynicism, 292
7. Music and Sin, 293
8. The Champion, 296
9. Honor in America, 300
10. Note in the Margin of a Treatise
on Psychology, 302
11. Definition, 302

XVIII CATECHISM, 304

INDEX, 305

PREJUDICES

FIFTH SERIES

PREJUDICES: FIFTH SERIES