The annual meeting for the award of academic distinctions won by students in Harvard College during the year 1902-1903 was held last night in Sanders Theatre. After a choral by the Appleton Chapel choir, Dean Hurlbut, the presiding officer, stated the purposes of the meeting. He then introduced Rev. Edward Everett Hale '39, who delivered the principal address of the evening.

Dr. Hale, after showing the detur which he received when he was in College, gave an interesting account of the life of Edward Hopkins, born in 1600, through whose original donation the College has been able to provide the annual deturs. He said in part:

"I please myself when I take my detur in hand for the ten-thousandth time, with representing to myself a dinner party, where, after his return from America. Hopkins sits with Milton at his right and Cromwell at his left, where Andrew Marvell and Waller and Cowley and Dryden sit with the other guests. Did they make Milton, perhaps, recite some verses which describe the successes of an angelic host; did the poets, perhaps, press their host to compare for them the Connecticut against the Thames, or the Pequods against the wild Irish of their day?

"Perhaps some of you will do us the favor to write a novel in which that scene shall be the best scene, and these gentlemen shall quote some of their best verses. Our benefactor was a favorite of Cromwell's. We know that Cromwell loved New England and New Englanders."

"The time would fail me to tell of those whose faith has subdued kingdoms, who have obtained a good report through faith, and who in their faith in God and in hope for men have made Alma Mater their almoner in encouraging the young men of each successive year. Thus far in the history of the world, the year 1903 has been the best year, the annus mirabilis. It is your good fortune, young gentlemen, that you will always name this date as a central date in the history of your lives, in the history of this College. And you will remember in your thanks to God, you will remember in your hope for your country, you will remember in what spirit these gifts have been given by men whose names even are forgotten. No one shall say that they have left no memorial. You are their memorial, and your lives in the next fifty years are to remind men of these unnamed benefactors. They shall remind you of men who desired the true nature of Godliness and Christianity, who knew the necessity and excellency of serious religion which shall subject all worldly respects unto these high and glorious ends. They have attempted, as Edward Hopkins says, to give some encouragement for the bringing up of hopeful youth in the way of learning for the public service of the country in future times."

At the conclusion of Dr. Hale's address the audience sang the Harvard Hymn, after which the announcement of prizes and the award of deturs took place. Dean Hurlbut announced the offer of a new fund of $3,500, subscribed by the classmates of Lloyd McKim Garrison '88, to establish an annual medal for the best undergraduate poem submitted in competition,--this medal, with a yearly prize of $100, to be known as the Lloyd McKim Garrison Prize. The design of the medal has been executed by Benner. With the consent of the editors of the Monthly, the winner of this prize, may, if he expresses a desire to be a candidate for an editorship of the Monthly, count his poem as two of the four contributions required. The details for the awarding of the prize have not yet been arranged.

The meeting closed with the singing of Fair Harvard.

On another page of the CRIMSON is a complete list of the prizes and distinctions awarded.