191 1] "Three Thousand Hearers 



largest of all my audiences, with Mayor Muyemura 

 in the chair. A dinner of welcome by the local 

 Peace Society preceded the public meeting. The night 

 was very hot. The hall was filled with three thou- 

 sand or more laborers from the factories, all sitting 

 patiently on the floor, where they had placed them- 

 selves as soon as the doors were opened. But their 

 native good humor and forbearance were even more Good 

 patently displayed later on. For before entering the ^"'"'"' 

 hall each one had (according to universal custom) 

 slipped on a pair of sandals, placing his street clogs 

 {geta) in the open racks which stand by scores at the 

 entrances to public halls. Each knew where he had 

 deposited his own geta, but had to wait his proper 

 turn to get them. The affair ended about ten o'clock. 

 From then on until midnight people were still busy 

 changing sandals for clogs, and for some time after- 

 ward one heard along the pavements the clatter so 

 characteristic of Japanese street life. 



On my way to the hotel after this lecture, I was 

 confronted by a young man who in loud, emphatic 

 tones declared: "I am a Christian!" This an- 

 nounced, we each moved on. 



In the neighboring seaport of Kobe, I gave four At Kobe 

 addresses: one at the Higher Commercial College, 

 one before the Methodist College, one at a prepara- 

 tory school for girls, and one at a mass meeting fol- 

 lowing a dinner by the Peace Society at the Hotel 

 Tor. Living in the city were a number of Stanford 

 graduates, two of them, Kokubo and Menabe, being 

 college teachers. Mr. Otto H. Hahn^ (Stanford 'oo) 

 was prominent in local business circles. Sindo, my 



* Later changed to Henry Ogden Hereford, other family names being sub- 

 stituted for the ones originally borne. 



n 385 a 



I 



