Hutchins Hapgood (May 21, 1869, Chicago - November 19, 1944, Provincetown, MA) was an American journalist, author and anarchist. Hapgood grew up in Alton, IL, where his father was a wealthy manufacturer of farming equipment. After a year at the University of Michigan, he transferred to Harvard University, where he took a B.A. in 1892 and earned his Masters in 1897. Two of the intervening years were spent studying sociology and philosophy at the universities of Berlin and Freiburg, Germany. At first, he became a teacher of English composition at Harvard and the University of Chicago, but was...

This man also becomes a member of one of the many hundred lodges which exist on the east side. These societies curiously express at once the old Jewish customs and the conditions of the new world. They are mutual insurance companies formed to support sick members. When a brother is ill the President appoints a committee to visit him. Mutual insurance societies and committees are American enough, and visiting the sick is prescribed by the Talmud. This is a striking instance of the adaptation of the "old" to the "new." The committee not only condoles with the decrepit member, but gives him a...