THE centennial of Phillips Academy, Andover, which is to be celebrated on Wednesday and Thursday of next week, is rendered of interest to the students of Harvard by the fact of the close connection which has existed between the academy and this college. Of late years the number of boys prepared for Harvard at Andover has somewhat fallen off, but the tide has turned, and now an increasing number in every class find their way to this college.

The want of a sufficient endowment has kept Andover from responding quickly to the demands upon preparatory schools made by increasing the standard for admission at this and other colleges. It is proposed to raise at the celebration an endowment large enough to put Andover on a level with the best-equipped schools in the country; and if the attempt should succeed, as succeed it will, Harvard must gain by the increased number of students that will be prepared to enter here.

How intimate was the connection between Harvard and Andover in days gone by may be seen from the fact that among the pupils of the first year at the academy were John Abbott and Josiah Quincy, who became respectively a tutor and the president of this college. President Kirkland also graduated at Andover. The first principal of Phillips Exeter Academy, and the founder and first principal of Williston Seminary, were Andover graduates.

The celebration will begin at three o'clock on the afternoon of June 5, and will end with a dinner on Thursday afternoon. The oration will be given by Rev. Alexander McKenzie, the poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the arrangements are under the direction of Rev. E. G. Porter, all three of whom are graduates of Harvard.