SOME NEW MAGAZINES.
THE AMERICAN MERCURY, Vol. 1, No. 1 (annual sub. scription, 6). Mr. Mencken and Mr. Nathan, the editors of the American Mercury, have a reputation for iconoclasm, energy, rhodo- montade and wit. They persuade a reader by staggering him : no one would dare to hold up a finger in such a hurricane of words. They are rebels against all restrictions, and both of them wear their whisky-flasks on their sleeves. Their main object is " to belabor sham as agreeably as possible " ; and, of course, contributors reflect their views : magnificent fun is made of aesthetics, Christian Science, rejuvenescence, the Great War, philosophy, theology, patriotism and communism. They are not, however, invul- nerable or merely destructive : they set up for approval Professor Santayana, Stephen Crane, James Huneker, scepticism and freedom of speech. In consequence most of the Mercury is exhilarating to read ; and by a most excellent instinct the editors have kept the articles they include se short that we never have time to lose our patience. There seem to be incongruous articles here and there : there is; for example, a ponderous and helpless discussion of " The Test of English" by Professor Krapp. But, after all, the editors protest with vigour that there can never, in anything, be any standards of judgment but personal taste. Most incongruous and delightful of all is " Mr. Moore and Mr. Chew;" a dialogue composed by Mr. Samuel C. Chew, in which he contrives with an extreme polish and inoffensive- ness to analyse and expose the character of his subject.. Mr. John McClure's " The Weaver's Tale " is neatly written and very amusing. There are in addition a host of articles on political and social subjects—disarmament, communist organisations, Abraham Lincoln, the teaching of history— none of them without a surface brilliance and •a few of them of considerable value.
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