5-9 Summary and Analysis

First Appearance in Print:

Mencken's very first blurb in a newspaper involved a horse robbery. Police had found no trace of the thief or thieves at the time of Mencken's paragraph-long article.

Recollections of Notable Cops:

Mencken hears of a contemporary swearing-in of college graduates to the police academy, and finds it remarkable, for in his early days policemen were certainly not educated. They came from the working-class world of butchers and tugboat workers. That said, he knew some of these men who were as smart as the best lawyers who went about their business with uncommon pride.

One cop he fondly remembers is Charlie, who was charged with finding craftsmen to refurbish and redecorate the Baltimore jail. Charlie cruised the bars, and had a knack for identifying specific craftsmen among the drunks, who he would then arrest for two weeks...