H. L. Mencken

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Student Question

How does the party atmosphere in Dayton's town square differ from the revival meeting Mencken witnessed?

Quick answer:

Mencken is not at all sympathetic to the actions or beliefs of the worshippers in the "Hills of Zion". He feels that what is going on in Dayton is far more interesting than the revival. He finds it unbelievable that people who are even sillier than those in the camp meetings could be found anywhere else.

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From the tag on this question, I assume that you are asking about H.L. Mencken's column "Among the Believers" that is included in many anthologies of documents for history students.  In that column, Mencken is arguing that the people of Dayton itself are not really all that religious.  The truly religious, he says, are the people from back up in the hills.  The party atmosphere in town, then, is different from the revival meeting because there is no true belief there -- it is more like a circus than it is like the revival meeting.

Mencken clearly thinks that the hillbillies at the revival meeting (and other true believers like the woman who thought Coca-Cola was from the devil) are ignorant and backwards.  He cites the example of the woman who thought that reading books was wrong.  But he does not doubt that they truly believe.

By contrast, Mencken says,...

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the people in Dayton see the theology as a form of entertainment.  They listen for a while, he says, and they go off to get a drink.  The "real religion," Mencken says, is not present in Dayton -- it is only off in the hills.

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