Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-01
ON THEIR Way TO CHINA
WASHINGTON BUSINESS MEN
HAVING GOOD TIME ABROAD.
Conference Of Worlds Student Chris
tian Federation at Toxic Over.
Address Business Men.
S. S. PRINZ REGENT LUITPOLD,
En- Route From Nagasaki to Shanghai

S. S. PRINZ REGENT LUITPOLD,
En- Route From Nagasak1 to Shanghai,
April II, 1907.
After the close of the conference of the
Worlds Student Christian Federation at
Toxic We enjoyed several unique expert
ences. At Osaka the mayor gave us a
dinner, at which we had the opportunity
of meeting about forty of the leading men
Of the city, including city officials, the vice
governor Of the prefecture, the president
of the chamber Of commerce and some busi-
ness and professional men. The next
evening we were present at a dinner of the
leading Christian workers Of Osaka. Jap
anese and foreign, to the number of about
two hundred.
The following day was spent in Kyoto
Early IN the afternoon the ceremonies INCL
dent to the ground-b breaking for the new
building of the Young Mems Christian AS
ISOLATION were held. This enterprise is made
possible by the gift Of $4,000 from Mr..
John Wanamaker of Philadelphia for the
building, the money for the lot having been
contributed by kyoto business men. 1t was
expected that Mr.. Wanamaker would to
present to turn the first shovelful of EARTH
but in his necessary absence this duty was
performed by Mr.. Woodward in the pres
ence of large company Of Christian work
ers and other representative citizens. The
speakers on this interesting occasion in
TALES, president Of the last worlds confer
ence of Young Mems Christian Associa-
lions, held in Paris two years ago; Mr.. L.
H. Severance of New York, Rev. j. D. Da-
Wis, the veteran missionary at KyOtO, and
others.
Spoke to Business Men.
Immediately following the ground-break-
ing ceremonies Mr.. Woodward and the
writer were asked to speak to company
Of three or four hundred business men who
had assembled in large hall nearby Still
later we were entertained at dinner by the
president of the chamber Of commerce.
This dinner was served in japanese style
and we were entertained throughout by
japanese dramatics.
We left Kyobo on a night train and were
joined at Kobe by Rev. r. A. Thomson.
Early the next morning we left the train
at Itozak1, a station on the shore OF the
Inland sea. Capt. Bickel met us at the
train and soon we were breakfasting on
pei Ship. This is the most interesting
piece of missionary work we have seen in
all Japan The Inland sea contains sew
ton of between two and three millions, and
the only Christian work done among these
islanders is conducted by Capt. Bickel or
under his direction.
The work is under the auspices OF the
American Baptist Missionary Union. Capt:
Bickel visits annually three hundred and
sixty different villages, and these same
points are visited at other times by travel
ing japanese evangelsts working under
his direction We will never forget the
meeting we attended in his company. Leav-
ing the ship little after dark, we went
along shore for short distance In
launch, then landed and made our way
up the hill to village at the summit.
Capt Bickel and the Japanese evangelist
carried the stereoptcon outfit and large
package of printed matter. and led the way
III pann hfY,D %
the meeting was to be held, we found 1t
to be the largest residence in the village
and that the sliding partitions between
the rooms had all been removed to make
eighty people gathered in this house to hear
the Christian message. From babies tied
to their mothers backs, to grandfathers
and grandmothers, all ages were repre-
spoken for an hour accompanied by the
stereopticon pictures, Capt. Bickel dis
missed the children and spoke for another
hour When the general meeting had been
dismissed number remained, and for an
other hour he was kept busy answering
their inquiries. Everywhere he goes the
same spirit Of receptivity Is found. and
hundreds Of people come out to his ship
for personal interviews regarding Chris
tianty.
y 1t was midnight when we reached the
ship The next day was spent in a cruise
visiting number of points That night we
returned to Kobe, where we spent Sunday,
going on board this ship for passage to
Shanghai late in the evening, the ship
weighing anchor early Monday morning.
All day Monday We were again in the beau
tiful Inland sea and Tuesday morning we
arrived at Nagasaki. Spending most of
the day there, we set sail once more at 3
o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday and
will be in Shanghai Thursday morning.
Plans Changed.
This is a departure from our original
plan by which we had expected to go to
Tientsin and Pekng directly from Japan,
but the steamer schedules were not found
to be satisfactory and we go to Shanghai
first, visiting Hankow, Picking and Tien-
tsin later.
On board this steamer we have as a fell
low passenger Mr. Takahira. for many
years Japanese minister at Washington,
now on his way to take his post the
first ambassador of his government to the
government of Italy.
JOHN B. SLEMAN, Jr