A member of Baltimore's German-American community, Mencken was a high-tariff Republican who ran a nonunion factory, viewed the eight-hour day as a foreign innovation destined to destroy America, and drank rye whiskey before every meal, including breakfast.
In about 1889, the Baltimore local Cigar Makers' International Union called a strike.
The union did not have the funds to pay full benefits to members; the best it could manage was the $2.10 cost of a ticket to Philadelphia, which had so many cigar shops it was known as the Cigarmaker's Heaven.
The anti-union Mencken acquired a large quantity of the tools, rounded up a large number of drunks and tramps, gave them a shot of whiskey and a set of the tools, and sent them to Union headquarters for their tickets.
In the course of a few weeks, according to Mencken himself, "at least a thousand poor bums were run through the mill."