Books Reviewed

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 305, 16 March 1928, Page 14

Books Reviewed

MENCKEN. AND here is that dear, delightful Mr H. L. Mencken again, in the sixth series of his “Prejudices, 0 hurling wit, scorn, and derision in all directions at once, but with a devilish accuracy seldom found in volcanoes. We shall say no more. We shall quote as much as we are allowed to. Mr Mencken will now have a shy at: The American Government. The government, under the Volstead Act, is a spy and a snitcher, just as, under the Immigration Act, it is a brute and blackguard, and under the Alien Property Act, a common thief. Socialism. A Socialist, in brief, is simply a man suffering from an overwhelming compulsion to believe what is not true. Great Americanos. I know of no other country in which the hollow imbecilities of a Judge Gary would get the respect they got here, nor in which so preposterous a vacuum as Andy Mellon would be venerated as a great statesman. American Taste. It is Impossible to put down the wallpaper that defaces the average American home of the lower middle class to mere inadvertence, or to the obscene humour of the manufacturers. The Cookery-School Ma’am. When she invents a new way to utilise the hard heel of a ham, she believes that she has achieved something, though the house-cat may gag at it. Philosophers. There are, in the United Stales today, 1500 professional philosophers—that is, men who make their living at the trade. The country would be far better off if all save two or three of them were driving taxicabs or serving with the Rum Fleet. Euchrephobian Bureaucracy. It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume . . . that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. The FI Mums. . . . the professional incompetence of the gilded pants-pressers, decayed actors, and other such half-wits to whom the making of movies seems to be entrusted. There are people who think of Mencken as a nasty, turbulent fellow. For our part, we are content that he should turb till all’s blue and purple; he does it so beautifully. “Prejudices: Sixth Series.” H. L. Mencken. Jonathan Cape, Ltd. Our copy from the publishers.