'309TH ANNIVERSARY OF JOHN HARVARD'S BIRTH TOMORROW

Tomorrow is the 309th anniversary of the birth of John Harvard. To celebrate the occasion the Memorial Society has arranged a simple program to take place on Tuesday in lieu of Sunday, when so many members of the University will be absent from Cambridge. In addition to the program for Tuesday a meeting under the auspices of the Memorial Society is planned for Monday evening, and will be definitely announced on that day. The Memorial Society will meet in the Delta before the statue of John Harvard, which will be decorated with laurel wreaths for the occasion, on Tuesday morning at 8.30 o'clock. There before the statue J. W. D. Seymour '17 will speak in behalf of the gathering, expressing our debt to John Harvard and our loyalty to the College. Following this the customary exercises, ending with the singing of "Fair Harvard," will be held, and after cheering, the company will proceed to Appleton Chapel, where Dr. Albert Parker Fitch '00, D.D., president of Andover Theological Seminary, will make "John Harvard" the subject of his address. All members of the University are invited to both meetings.

No authentic clue to the exact date of John Harvard's birth was found until recently, when historians found the following entry of his birth in the baptismal files of St. Saviour's Church, Southwark--"1607, November 29, John Harvye, S. of "Robt., a Butcher." Since it was the custom in the churches at that time to require the baptism of every child three days after its birth historians were led on the occasion of the 300th annivesary of John Harvard's birth to fix November 26th in the year 1607 as the correct date of his birth.