(The Crimson invites all men in the University to submit signed communications of timely interest. It assumes no responsibility, however, for sentiments expressed under this head and reserves the right to exclude any whose publication would be palpably inappropriate.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

As this is such a state of transition, and as a good many of the most important traditions in our college life have been interrupted during the last few years, I wish, in behalf of those who are at Harvard for the first time, to say a few words with reference to the founding and the object of the expositions given at Harvard each season by Mr. Arthur Whiting and assisting artists.

This course was instituted twelve years ago by several influential Harvard alumni, notably Charles O. Brewster '76, and the Harvard Department of Music--the object being to provide perfectly free opportunity for all students in the University to begin an acquaintanceship, at any rate, with standard works of classic and modern musical literature. The feeling was that no one should claim to be a cultivated man of letters unless his general knowledge of music was somewhat on a par with that which is reasonably taken for granted by the world in such other arts as poetry, prose, painting, and architecture. To this end the alumni subscribe each year a thousand dollars and more so that the expositions may be of the highest order of excellence in having the music presented by artists of high rank. Mr. Whiting, also, gives us of his very best, and his preliminary talks are always most suggestive and illuminating. The project has had paid to it that sincerest form of compliment, namely, imitation and adoption by a number of the other leading universities, such as Yale, Princeton, etc., so that, as Mr. Whiting facetiously puts it, he now occupies a "rolling chair of music."

All music-loving students in the University should certainly make every effort to attend these expositions and to get the full pleasure and profit from them which the alumni so generously provide for. As there is a great deal going on now in the college world, and as it is correspondingly difficult to bring worthy objects to people's notice, I hope that everyone will tell his neighbor about these expositions so that little by little the large and enthusiastic audiences of former days may be regained. These expositions are certainly one of the most unusual opportunities for Harvard students, and there should be no diffidence or lukewarmness in the way of appreciation on the part of the student body. W. R. SPALDING.