THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SLUMMING

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 129, 1 June 1907, Page 15

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SLUMMING

I It is pos-siblo thtt the Rev W. [ Hoviiiuls Altai s, of New Voik, found i'oro:itly in a den of the lov-est type I in New York City, was merely "s-lum- | ming," that in truth h; was, as he declared, looking up matsriiil for n sermon. Theve is a type of moral teacher wHo, posibly in good faith, pursues this method of moral research, but it Lj -•'. method «o questionable at the point of intent, so subject to abuce — so contemptible, to put it plainly — that we think tlu: Bishop of New York has clone well to discredit Mr. Meat's pretensions and clHmi'33 him from lug clerical functions. Your ,i!umming otergymin ;r,; r, a good deal liko your muck-raking moralist; ho i 3 moro than likely to bo a chai'lalnn and ;v qujK-I; at tho beginning, and if not a charlnlpn and a quack at the beginning, ho is sure to become one it he plays the gamo long enough. Th-ore ia elastic- counsel against, familiarity with things vicious. The slops from toleration to sympathy, and from sympathy to acceptance, .-ire an easy to-day as they v/«re when Pope wrote : Vico j.'j a monster of ouch hid?ous mien, Thit to be hnted nwdii but to bo seen; Uui. hoen too oft, familiar v.'ith ilr, face, V/c iirst endure, than pity, then embrace. The preacher who sfekis moral infipiration in cons of vico, tli2 civic purist who chacss lafonn with n muck r.ike, arc aliko on the wrong track. Moral in^pii.ttion is found, not in bid things, but in good. Tha preachci 1 wlm would point t^ better tilings rind le:ul tho \\ay, needs to clean:..* and Ewocten hiii mind tnd ihanictci 1 by v. hoicsomc thoughts and refined n.»soci-i-tiunf. Ho will do belter to point upuanl nnd land upward, linn to carry In'o hem era through disgusting recitals of thing' tymibl?. Likewise tho civic i-i fo.m'T will in most c»g&s accomplifch "lore "ny nicking to make ihincA belt:'. 1 , than by cxpontljng his encrgren in elwawl', how bad things jie. 'i'hi> wnin— or th n woman— v.ljoec bent ot mind leads to personal inspection .tnd dose range cli..Br-ction of niorul uLioiiiin'Uionfi, merely for the flaks of the mental stimnhw involved in it, hns coaimonly in his or her niako-up some predisposition of sympathy and .-iflinity w-th forbidden things. Wholesome nund'jd men nnd women may indeed visit the slinnri on errands of charity ;>nd mercy, but assuredly they do not go theio for moiul' inspiration. — Argonaut.