"Hatrack"

Standing in a dense crowd at Lafayette Mall on the Common, Boston, an untidy-looking man with a bundle of magazines under his arm put a 50-c- piece between his teeth, bit it hard and grinned. In front of him stood a preacherman whom some recognized as Rev. Jason Franklin Chase, Secretary of the New England Watch and Ward Society, guardian of Boston morals. Nearby waited a distinguished gentleman whom some recognized as Arthur Garfield Hays, lawyer, defender of John Scopes, of the Countess Cathcart. And everybody stared unfavorably at the untidy man with the magazines. He had just committed an illicit act.

Dozens of policemen, thousands of witnesses, had seen him do it; he too knew that he was guilty. He had broken an edict relating to decency. No escape was possible. Already burly bluecoats were nudging through the crowd; while the onlookers hooted, mooed, clapped and guffawed, they led him off to jail. For this coin-biter was H. L. Mencken, journalist; by accepting the 50-c- as payment for a copy of the green-covered magazine, The American Mercury, of which he is the editor, he had broken an edict which barred that magazine from sale in Boston as "indecent."

The little scene on Boston Common had been most elaborately led up to. First Dr. Chase -- offended by an article called "Hatrack" which dealt with copulation in a cemetery -- had ordered newsdealers to remove the American Mercury from their stands. Editor Mencken, on advice of counsel, determined to test the validity of the order.

So Mr. Mencken went to Boston and applied for a peddler's license. He was offered his choice of two licenses. The first permitted him to sell bones, grease and refuse matter. The second gave him leave to hawk anything he chose except fish, fruit or vegetables. Mr. Mencken promised not to violate these provisions, received his license. Arthur Garfield Hays telephoned Dr. Chase and asked him if he would buy an American Mercury if Mr. Mencken offered one for sale. It was Dr. Chase's silver coin that Editor Mencken popped into his mouth.

In court, Editor Mencken was arraigned on a charge of " selling literature tending to corrupt the morals of the young," released on a $1,000 surety bond that he would appear next morning. True to his bond, he stepped into court and sat down to listen to the decision of Justice James Parmentier.

". . . The first inquiry is whether the language used in 'Hatrack' is obscene, indecent, impure. . . . On this matter we are guided by the decision in Commonwealth v. Buckley 200 Mass., 346. . . . Viewing it from every phase, I find that no offense has been committed. . . . dismiss the complaint."

Jubilant, Editor Mencken picked up his hat and went out to luncheon. He was having lunch that day at the Harvard Union. Now, long before he had committed his offense on the common, long before the trial, the loyal students of Harvard had planned this luncheon in honor of one whom they regarded as a martyr of prudery. They were sure that he would be convicted. When Judge Parmentier's decision reached them, the campus took on the electric glory that thrills it on days when the Harvard football eleven has won a match. The huge hall at the Union was packed to the doors, and though only 600 could sit down, some 1400 others stood among the tables, or craned through the windows. Professor Felix Frankfurter of the Law School introduced Martyr Mencken:

"We had assembled to condole with a martyr. We did not hope to greet the martyr vindicated. Mr. Mencken has done a dreadful and a brave thing."

Professor Zechariah Chafee Jr. of the Law School told the students to look rigidly to themselves.

Then Mr. Mencken arose: " The reason we attacked this poor fool* and ruined him was an effort to substitute the courts of law for back-alley assassination. . . . From now on we are going to make these fellows bring their charges into the open. . . . And they're easy to beat. We've just proved that. When you get after them, 99% will run, and the other 1% is easy picking."

After this utterance, Editor Mencken presented Harvard University with the Flag of Maryland (he is a native of Baltimore) and the students and professors, rising to their feet, tendered him the Harvard cheer, three times three. Commented the New York Tribune:

" The incurable vulgarity of H. L. Mencken is mixed with a considerable amount of business acumen. . . . He has made his living for years by smart jibes at the common mind. Nothing is easier to write than this form of humor. He is completely alien to America. . . the penny-dreadful of the intelligentsia. . . a professional smart-Aleck. . ."

Two days later, Editor Mencken was informed that the U. S. Post Office Department had barred from the mails not only the issue of the American Mercury containing "Hatrack," but all reprints in whatever form. At Farmington, Mo., home town of Hatrack and of the author of "Hatrack" (Herbert Asbury, a member of the staff of the New York Herald Tribune), Rev. Frank T. Jarnigan exulted: "This is one of the greatest moral victories Farmington has ever won." He intimated that prayers of thanksgiving would be said in his church (Methodist) and a congratulatory message sent to the Postmaster General.

Mayor C. A. Tetley of Farmington said: "I remember Asbury as a boy here, and he seemed like any other young chap. I think he must have got a little out of balance since he left Farmington. We resent chiefly the aspersion cast on all** the women of Farmington."

Trowel

At the corner of 14th and F Streets, Washington, there stood, early in the week, a low wall of bricks somewhat jagged at one end President Coolidge approached, took a trowel and spread some additional plaster with difficulty. "It won't spread well", he remarked with a trace of annoyance. Then he stood back to survey the cornerstone he had laid, put aside the silver trowel.

Soon the new $10,000,000 National Press Club will rise eleven stories high above that cornerstone, with a frontage of one entire block. It will contain a beautiful theatre, numerous ground-floor shops, and opulent quarters for the 200 newspaper correspondents who reside in Washington.

The President surveyed his work and found it good, as did many another. Soon he had delivered an appropriate speech (see p. 5), hastened away. Many persons invited to this ceremony tucked away as curiosities their engraved invitations, each of which was pasted upon a lumpy segment of printer's stereotype mat.

*Dr. Jason Franklin Chase, an ordained Methodist preacher, has ever been concerned with the problems of social reform. He was appointed four times delegate to the International Purity Federation by President Wilson, instigated the fight against "dope traffic" in Boston and has been active in the "white slave" movement.

**"Hatrack," or "Fanny Fewclothes," is described as a prostitute who went to the "Northern Methodist Church" of Farmington repeatedly, but was so rebuffed by the whole congregation that she always returned to her ancient trade.