New-York tribune., 1906-12-16
A WILD DASH OVER A CITY.

The Sunday which I spent I'm Sendai was a
unique experience of how the East hustles the
West Unwilling of what the request meant
I expressed desire to see the Sendai churches
for myself. So programme made for me,
and with the Rev. j. F. Steiner, of Ohio as
guide. was started out early in the morning in
a jinrikSha, drawn by two coolies. for wild
ride that included visits to eleven churches and
two Sunday schools. Small wonder one of the
coolies proved unequal TO the strain, for the
tour was made dead
There twelve hundred Protestant Chris
tians and eight hundred members of the Roman
Catholic and Greek churches among the one
hundred thousand inhabitants of the city. In
addition to numerous congregations meeting in
private residences there ten churches all.
of course with native pastors. established In
their own buildings Two of the latter the Re
formed and the Methodist Episcopal. would
adorn any town in the Western World There
are thirty-three Sunday schools. with an aver
age attendance of 1.4S4 every Sunday. On the
streets saw. just as at home scores of per-
sons on the way to and from the churches
carrying the little. fat, red hymnbook and
Bible done up in a pocket handkerchief-in
Japan nothing is carried unwrapped.
The first place I visited was the Congreea-
tfonal school. where fifteen persons mostly
young men students. were found. Later | re-
turned for church and met congregation of
one hundred, still largely composed of Young
men The pastor of the church is especially
popular with students. Miss Bradshaw was the
only Whlte person in evidence. DR. De Forest
being absent from the city. The Congregation
aIlsts have a long established evangeIistic and
Bible teaching work in Sendai. but no tnstitm-
tions
In the sunday school of the Reformed Church
Which Is graded along modern American lines
found 2!3 persons in attendance At the
church service the number was consdera bIy-
larger. This is the leading church of the citv
having between four and five hundred members
and an imposing building. with the architecture
and equipment of the most progressive Wast
ern churches. There were upward of dozen
Whlte persons here. as this denomination cen
tres It's missionary work in Sendai
Both peWS and mats furnished the beautirpI
Protestant Episcopal church. which throurhout
was an attractive combination of Japanese and
English architecture. In interior annea ra noe
@ tiliS puIi4lng surpassed its much larger neigh
pors Ihere We're sixteen worshippers one Of
them white. The last named is an Ap,aricaa -
woman VINO IS taking Up new work in an in
terror village where she is the only missionary
and the only foreigner as we'll
A small wooden church of adantAd JaDapa.,
architecture. but furnished with henches held
the congregation that~appealed 10 me most nv
us interest and manifest devotion II was n
- -,oapeiSt cnurch sel1-supporting, and eighty nine
persons were present Here. as elsewhere
heard the familiar Christian hymns hut all
sung in the minor strain that characterizes
Japanese music. Three American women mis-.
Slonaries present.
ThirtysiX persons. mostly young men and
women were present in the new Disciples
church. which looked as if il might have been
lifted bodily from some American or Canadian
village.
AT two small and newly erected churches OF
the Reformed denomination L found thirty
seven and thirty-four persons. respectively. in
both cases mostly men. This was a character
istio of most churches visited.
twenty-five persons. including Missionary Me-
Cord and his family, were seated their feet
IN e. japanese dwelling at the service of the
American Christian Convention mission which
as Yet has no church building.
The Methodists have been successful In Sem
dai and tha congregation. which found xoS~