To the Students of Harvard:

In answer to the demand of some members of the class of '97, I sign this letter with my name, although the '98 committee has given me the privilege of withdrawing it. I cannot face the position of sneaking through college life with such a concealment.

I loved Harvard and I worked hard there. On the night of Saturday, May 29, after the Harvard-Princeton baseball game, I did, upon the impulse of the moment (I intended only to paint the score on the sidewalk when I bought the paint) commit what has properly been called an act of vandalism, of which I am heartily ashamed, and which has cost me my dearest ambition. I painted the score upon the pedestal of the statue of John Harvard, but I never intended it for "desecration," although I now feel that the student sentiment was just.

After some time I may wish to visit the University. If so I should have no pleasure in meeting friends whom I thought would not be friends if they knew the truth. I should rather have the friendship of one fellow in the University who knew of this act and forgave it than the friendship of the whole University if this friendship was based on ignorance of the facts. I wished to write this letter before leaving Cambridge, when I first saw the demands for my name in the CRIMSON, but there were others to be thought of. I now find that these others feel as I do and will stand by me. I am therefore at liberty to follow my own inclination in the matter. Until I knew this I felt that I must conceal my name.

It is hardly necessary to say how deeply I regret all that I did, and I wish thus publicly to express this feeling to the faculty and students of Harvard.

HOWARD DUNNING. Cedarhurst, Long Island, June 13, 1897.