The age-herald., 1897-08-13
ETCHINGS FROM
 CURRENT TOPICS

It is a foregone conclusion that when a
 man or a woman desires to be considered
 thoroughly up-to-date in intellectual ad- ] vancement, he or she begins to discuss
 with persistent huency the science of so-
 cology. Both sexes find their way to uni-
 versties where they devote much valuable
 time in studying the dark and tangled
 questions which bear upon this fashionable | theme. Young men who decide to enter 1 the ministry sometimes insist upon devot- ing months to sociology, provided they can go to Europe to perfect themselves. Indeed | to be worthy of any consideration as student or scholar, one must talk, write and read sociology The result of such
 devotion to this old-new science is not al-
 ways satisfactory to persons who are in
 different to all such philosophical research. | There have been a few notable cases where | a community has patiently suffered for the
 folly of an enthusiast who has, in the ex-
 tolerance of a high, broad and wide mental 1 development enveigled an unsuspecting
 club into subscribing for a university
 course of lectures upon the exhaustless
 subject of sociology. These lectures are | StHeIduy denNfltu py AANh HiiO S4OAS tH
 the torture they infict upon helpless au-
 diences. These perepatetic professors begin | the series of talks with expeditions into | the appalling darkness of chaos; they up- | heave the great boulders upon which God | build his universe in their gigantic efforts
 to secure the earliest suggestions of pre-
 historic man. With ghoush glee they dig i and uproot all along the great highways | of the centuries in struggle to dissect i humanity There is no rest for the weary
 feet of these birds of passage because the
 dark, turbulent waters of ignorance cover
 the face of the earth. But at last the
 course of lectures is closed, man is con- signed to his last resting place, figurative- 1 ly, of course, by these students of humani- l ty, and the worn and exhausted subscribers 1 look yearningly upon the tomb, for there | is no sociology nor talking of sociology in
 the silent grave. A few things in life recon- l clle us to a contemplation of death, and | chief among them Is the fad of sociology.
 
 There is form of the science that is
 not taught and this far is not fashionable | in any section of the world, nor is it like | ly to be. But it is a glorious form, and, per haps some day ministerial students and
 others who talk philosophically of the | earth and it's miseries will find that it will
 not be necessary to go to the gay capitals of Europe to investigate its effect upon the human race. In every city or village of the | land there are enough opportunities to study the questions relating to humanity | and it's needs, and these will prove more helpful than any course devised by col- | lege professors.
 These wide fields which are ripe for the | gleaning of sociologists have been invaded l by practical young man of New York, | Walter A. Wyckoff, and he has recently returned from two-years' experience among the working men of various parts of America. Mir Wyckoff is giving an ac- count of his life among the poor, in a series of magazine articles. He is young
 man, only thirty years of age, Fellow of Princeton, and an associate of such men as J. Pierpont Morgan. He had been for
 years an enthusiastic student of sociology,
 and contended for the rights of the poor, and the giving to them of larger oppor- | tuIities
 At house party given by MT. J. P. Morgan, of New York, in 1891, Mir Wyckoff was one of the guests, and when the an- tagonisms of capital and labor were dis cussed by the distinguished men present, he always braveay presented the side of 1 the laborer. He held the position that the | rich are responsible for the discontent of | the poor. This amazed MT. Morgan, who i chided him with the fact that he was only
 theorst, and knew nothing of the prac- | tical side of the matter. Nettled by such
 assertions MT. Wyckoff announced his in- l tention to put into practice his theories, 1 to go out among the people as one of them,
 lead their life, and earn his own living by
 daily toll.
 | This he did, and he left MT. Morgan's pa- l latial home without a cent of money, in a cheap suit of clothes and made his way
 among the plain people as one of them.
 He drifted away from home, as far as Cali 1 fornia, always preserving his integrity, and | for two years, with one exception, he lived i apart from his family and friends, and 1 learned more in that brief period of the l genuine science of sociology than he im- | bibed from tonnes written by men who had spent their lives amid the luxurious sur roundings of the rich. The one time that Mr. Wyckoff returned to his old life was
 on the occasion of the marriage of his brother, when he acted as best man. He will now have an opportunity to bring l the two great classes of humanity into a more sympathetic relationship; he is fa-
 miliar with the joys the sorrows, the hopes, 1 the disappointments of both rich and poor Mir. Wyckoff has pursued the study of
 sociology in the only way that counts for | anything to the human race.
 | BALL. Boston's Two Greatest Men l