Observance of Columbus Day at Harvard.

Harvard appropriately observed Columbus Day by exercises in Appleton Chapel yesterday morning. After Dr. Peabody had opened the services with prayer the choir sang Prof. Paine's hymn, written expressly for the Worlds Fair and sung for the first time only through the courtesy of the committee. Dr. Justin Winsor followed with his address.

Dr. Winsor stands perhaps without a peer among American historians and on account of recent research is especially well qualified to speak on Columbus. He began by crediting to the ancient Greeks cosmographical study which found its fruition in the 15th century. Had Carthage triumphed over Rome we might sooner have known the secrets of the Atlantic, but after all it is to the descendants of the Romans, Columbus, Vespucsi Verrizaro and John Cabot that we are indebted for the discovery of America.

Prince Henry of Portugal, descendant of the English John of Guant earned for himself the title of the Navigator, by his expeditions along the coast of Africa, and in 1457 the King of Portugal authorized an expedition to the West. From 1474 on, the influence of Tuscanelli, the Florentine astronomer, was very great. Belief in the western passage was in the air, and in 1479 the theory of the western extension found its greatest adherent in the Italian wanderer who was destined to work out its solution.

Dr. Winsor contrasted the faithful loyalty of Columbus to the church, with the attitude of many of his day, and closed his address by showing how fortunate it was that Columbus guided by the birds landed among the peaceful inhabitants of the Bahamas rather than among the fierce nations of Florida or on the bleak shores to the north.

Prof. Churchill of Andover then read Lowell's poem on Columbus, after which all joined in singing America.