He worked for three years in his father's cigar factory. He disliked the work, especially the sales aspect of it, and resolved to leave, with or without his father's blessing. In early 1898 he took a writing class at the Cosmopolitan University. This was to be the entirety of Mencken's formal education in journalism, or in any other subject. Upon his father's death a few days after Christmas in the same year, the business passed to his uncle, and Mencken was free to pursue his career in journalism. He applied in February 1899 to the "Morning Herald" newspaper (which became the "Baltimore Morning Herald" in 1900) and was hired part-time, but still kept his position at the factory for a few months. In June he was hired as a full-time reporter.