45-49 Summary and Analysis

The Wallace Paranoia:

Mencken covers the Progressive Party convention of 1948. It has been an overall reserved affair. Candidate Wallace has done nothing to help himself out after making an "ass" of himself in a press conference and bumbling through an acceptance speech. The convention has attracted a fair share of crackpots, of which Mencken counts Communists, who Wallace has neither embraced nor explicitly rejected. The convention is generally full of half-wits, psychopaths, and Bible-belt evangelists, but there are a few "raisins in the bread," a few honorable career people who have seen a dizzying array of these types of conventions.

Mencken's Last Stand:

In Mencken's last published article, he refers to a court case involving blacks and whites being arrested for congregating in the park at a tennis contest. Mencken wishes to abolish the "Ku Kluxry" (racism) still found in Maryland...