Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : 250,000 Swarm Park to Hear Evangelist

An estimated 250,000 people attended evangelist Billy Graham’s first New York City crusade in 21 years. Graham’s spokesman said the throng in Central Park was the largest crowd ever to attend one of his crusades in North America. “Everybody I talk to, it seems, agrees that New York is the loneliest place in the world,” Graham said in his sermon. Graham called New York “the capital of the world” because of its ethnic diversity and its importance in such fields as business and the arts. “But with all of this overload of vitality and variety . . . New York City is a place in desperate spiritual need,” he said.