The sun., 1903-12-08
The Part Of the People Who Go to
Church.


The count of the church attendance
on Sunday, Nov. 20, in the districts OF
Mania ttan lying between Fourteenth
ard Fifty-third streets, found something
over 80 per cent. of the population in the
churches, or about per cent. more than
had been found on previous Sunday in
the churches to tho east and west Of the
Central Park.
Probably this larger church attendance
in the lower districts was due chiefly
to the circumstance that in that region
are concentrated very many of the great
hotels, visitors at which, especially nu-
merous at this season, are disposed to
attend metropolitan churches and to
listen to preachers of distinction. 1t is
not reasonable to assume that any larger
percentage of the resident population
there 60 to church than in other districts.
Similar censuses taken on a larger scale
in this city and London have shown that
the church attendance is about one in
four of the population, and probably
the percentage in those districts is not
SlSnlncantly ulHeTent.
That region of Manhattan Island con-
tains about quarter of the whole num-
ber of churches in the borough, among
these many of the most notable, to which
strangers in the town would be attracted
more particularly.
OF the total church attendance Of 1885,
9l4, more than two-thirds. or s5,5l2, was
in Roman Catholic churches. This CEN
sus, therefore, affords another illustra-
ton of the preponderance of that faith
among the earnest religious believers Of
Manhattan. 1t also shows anew that Of
the churches not Roman Catholic, the
Episcopal are the most frequented. The
attendance in these, 1903, was nearly
as great as that in Presbyterian, Baptist,
Lutheran and Methodist, combined,
which was 1851 If. however, we add
to the Presbyterian the attendance on
the cognate Reformed churches, we get
a total only about one-quarter less than
the Episcopalian.
None of these censllses of church at
tendance can be taken as accurate, but
there is so close an agreement among
them in their percentages of the popula-
ton that they seem to be near enough to
accuracy to enable ,ls to conclude that
something like quarter of the people of
the great cities go to church on Sunday
besides, as in the case Of the district cam
vassed on the last Sunday in November,
visitors to town. This would imply that
three people out of four do not go to
church; but, of course, the number
counted in the churches on particular
Sunday cannot be taken as including all
faithful religious believers. Instead of
the present percentage being small, it is
questionable whether. if we could COM
pare it with that of generation ago, for
instance, it would not be found to be fully
as great. When even one-quarter OF the
people of community go to church its
religious sentiment is still powerful. The
habit of religious observance has not yet
been broken up by the spread of religious
indifference or downright infidelity.
In none of the districts canvassed, it
may be remarked, is the percentage of
the foreign population as high as in the
borough generally; and in all it is very
much lower than in the East Side be-
low Fourteenth street, more particularly.
The average in the canvassed districts is
about a third. In the East Side districts
it was 5s.l per cent, and in one, the
Eighth, it was more than two-thirds, or
67.2 per- cent, according to the Federal
census of 1900, since which time it has
become greater by reason of the very
heavy immigration.
As all the similar censuses taken re-
Gently have demonstrated, the greatest
support of the church still comes from
the religious sentiment Of women. Out
of the total church attendance on the
last Sunday of November, in the particu-
lar district to which we have referred,
only about one-fourth was Of men.
A japanese Exclusion Bill.