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He Would Get Rid Of The Eastern
Shore To the Editor or The Evening Sun—Sir:
Mencken wrote spiritedly—if not well— but not completely. What a glorious chance for him to have said that taxes should be diverted from building "lateral roads in the counties" to more needed improvements, as, for instance, schools for adults down on the "Sho'." To think that our somewhat civilized citizens here should be penalized by having to live so close to such morons as our dear "Sho'men" are seems to be absolutely unfair and inequitable to us. Mencken should have said that the "Sho'" should be a separate entity—called Chesapeake—and how nice it would be if they were submerged indefinitely in the Chesapeake—then they could have water sports in addition to their pleasant outdoor sports.
I liked your attitude, and I respectfully request more of Mencken. And more power to the press when it acts as you have. Coleman Blum. "Baltimorean by Choice."
Baltimore, Dec. 10.
Wherein Mencken Is Classed As A Moron, A Simon Legree And A Few Other Things To the Editor or The Evening Sun—Sir:
H. L. Mencken's insatiate itch for notoriety has broken out again. This time he is in the throes of an attack of malignant Shoreitis fever brought about by the lynching at Salisbury.
Indeed, his frothings are so rabid as to be indicative of hydrophobia—even to the presence of the morbid dread of water-much preferring beer and hard liquor.
Judging from the reaction of the Shore to the Mencken harangue in The Evening Sun of December 7, anent her "kultur," one is not surprised that a boycott oi The Sun and things Baltimorean is widely considered in the "forlorn corner of the State."
But, really, Mr. Mencken's bellowing, his exaggerated egoistic opinion—that he is capable of educating, or conceiving a remedy for any condition, even overindulgence of "rot-gut liquors"—is too ridiculous to be taken seriously by any Shoreman, even the "knavish politicians."
Indeed, no! It is not Mr. Mencken's prolonged discourse abounding in acrimonious invective, which is but the outpouring of the virus of hib inward nature, that has stirred up the wrath of the Shore. It is that a paper which has supported the campaigns of the "knavish politicians," and been supported by them, has "licked the 'lasses off their bread" and now calls them "poor white trash," has lent its aid to a "kultur" spawned in an atmosphere foreign to America and American ideals.
It is that The Evening Sun gives place in its columns to the outpouring vituperations of an atrophied mind, inverted in its action; a perverter of adolescent thought; a Simon Legree, propagated in a Negro quarter of the Monumental City.
The purport of this is in no sense to -intend lynching; but rather a just resentment against a meddler in matters of which he knows nothing; yet who peddles his opinion, clothed in obscene epithets, under the caption of "We "
Mr. Mencken's clownlshness resembles nothing so much as the gibbering of his prehensile ancestors, in which he believes, and which all would be justified In believing in if Mr. Mencken were accepted as a standard of the human race. His chief delight lies in the mouthing oi words little used and which he considers a clever usage of English; but which to a writer worthy of the name loudly proclaim his plebeian "kultur" as a caricature of real culture; a lack of innate refinement.
As water seeks its level, so is man's rank determined by his outbursts, which are indicative of his character. Mr. Mencken has found his level along with Ames, the defender of Yuel Lee, and others of the Simon Legree stripe.
If Mr. Mencken knows the politics of the Shore so well, it is unnecessary to remind him that the ablest jurists in the State are Eastern Shoremen. That the civic government of the State, as well as the city of Baltimore, has for decades been, and still is, represented largely by Eastern Shoremen. Whether that government be good, bad or indifferent, its best is the product of the Shore.
Everyone, even so great a moron as Mr. Mencken, knows that everywhere real statesmen are as scarce as the proverbial "hen's teeth." The Shore has supplied some of the best representatives of present-day statesmanship.
After a careful analysis of the lynching occurrence at Salisbury, fair-mindedness fails to discover any evidence indicative of "porcine" qualities in the lynchers, to which Mr. Mencken referred, while Mr. Mencken has again and again unreservedly proclaimed his own porcine proclivities. If guzzling swill is any indication of swinishness he must be one of the initiate in the porcine society. So, "that is that."
The Shore has learned one lesson only from the ribald railing of Mr. Mencken; and that is that The Evening Sun has repeatedly lent its columns to the invective of Mencken vulgarisms without even as much as a slap on the wrist for his invasion of decent territory. Indeed, one is led to conclude that The Evening Sun has become inoculated with the Mencken virus; and that it is included in the "We" of th» Mencken harangue. Estelle Holmes.
Longwoods, Md., Dec. 10.
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