Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1895 — JAPANESE M. E. CHURCH. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JAPANESE M. E. CHURCH.

They Dedicate Their First Edifice Erected in America. The first Japanese church in America was dedicated in San Francisco recently. Its outside is of brick, plaster and wood-carving. Its congregati<jp consists of 300 Japanese Methodists, with a few Japanese girls of various sizes in charge of Miss Hewitt as chaperon. Inside there is a strip of Japanese matting in the aisle and chairs take the place of regular seats. The pulpit has

a gay red carpet, and there is a red curtain between the choir and the audience. There are Japanese vases of dull blue pottery with a stork design full of flowers. The church itself is in the upper story. Below are the chapel, schoolroom and offices, with the dormitories of the mission in the rear. The mission boys have intelligent, well-bred faces.

FIRST JAPANESE CHURCH IN AMERICA.