Untitled

Dear Mr. Mencken,

Having grown up in a alcoholic home I found reading your essay, "Portrait of an Ideal World" disturbing. What you mentioned in your essay that, "the man that is gently stewed is immensely more amiable than the cold sober one. He is a better citizen, husband, father and friend" is totally untrue for me. I lived in a home with my mother, brother and sister and a father who drank most of his life, except when his children were born and when is life depended on him not drinking. His drinking did not make him a better father. He was a better father when he was not drinking. We children were afraid of him. We never knew what to expect when he came home. Would he be drinking or not; would he be able to play with us or woul...