http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/908632601

Heathen days, 1890-1936

In the third volume of his reminiscences, H.L. Mencken looks back on his life and declares it "very busy and excessively pleasant." He imparts the impressive education he received from Hoggie Unglebower, the best dog trainer in Baltimore, and the survival techniques he employed at the Polytechnic, where he learned to protect his fingers from power tools and his character from the influence of algebra. He recalls his frequent visits during Prohibition to a beer hall in Union Hill, New Jersey, which Mencken thought, "the most comfortable I have ever encountered on this earth" with its perfect beer, cheap food, and expert waiters. Mencken's recollections further include the club boxing matches he attended, watching as the combatants in this gentleman's sport genteelly broke both bones and the law, and his voyage across the Atlantic, which he, unlike Columbus, paid for himself. In Naples, he admired the garbage that seemed to have accumulated since Roman times. In Tunis, he searched for the ruins of Carthage. In the Holy Land, he looked for the ruins of Gomorrah, the Hollywood of antiquity, in hopes of finding evidence that the city's unparalleled reputation for wickedness was simply exaggerated.

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