Professor H L Mencken

The Free Lance, September-December 1911 Professor H L Mencken

H. L. Mencken's "Free Lance" columns during the final quarter of 1911 continue to range over a wide array of subjects. He criticizes the extreme measures advocated by the Maryland Anti-Vivisection Society; he attacks local politicians, from the mayor on down, for sundry instances of malfeasance; he repeatedly censures the city of Baltimore for failing to curtail outbreaks of typhoid; he ridicules various organizations promoting medical quackery. Along the way, Mencken finds occasion to discuss poetry and fiction (including Theodore Dreiser's novel Jennie Gerhardt), and he also presents a pungent letter from "Nicholas Satan" on the city's Sunday laws. A moving column on Baltimore's poor treatment of its African American citizens, leading to unacceptably high instances of disease among its population, points to Mencken's devotion to the cause of "common decency" and the vital role of journalists in fostering it.