The American School at Athens.

The CRIMSON is in receipt of the following letter from Prof. John Williams White:

"Your attention is respectfully invited to the enclosed advance proof of an article on the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece, which is to appear under "Topics of the Time" in the "Century" magazine for February. It is desired to collect a permanent fund not less than $100,000, as an endowment for the school. At present the school is supported by the annual subscriptions of sixteen colleges.

It is important that the permanent fund be raised without delay, in order that we may secure the services, as permanent director of the school, of Dr. Charles Waldstein of New York, the young archaeologist who has won recognized fame in the service of the Cambridge University, England.

The Magazine Committee, of which I am chairman, will be grateful for any assistance you may render them, by notice of the "Century" article in your columns, in securing their object.

Subscriptions toward the permanent fund of the school at Athens, of which public acknowledgement will be made, may be sent to the treasurer of the managing committee of the school, Frederick J. de Peyster, Esq., No. 7 East Forty-second street, or to Messrs. William Alexander Smith & Co., bankers, No. 58 Wall street, New York."

FROM "TOPICS OF THE TIME" IN FEBRUARY "CENTUAY.""The determined attack upon classical education, which looked for a time like a successful rebellion, has been in reality of signal service to the cause against which it was directed. Among other offensive measures adopted by the friends of the old learning was the establishment at Athens of a school where rising American Hellenists could enjoy the same advantages as were afforded to their co-workers from Germany, France and England. The practical man would have flouted the scheme as chimerical. But, four years since, a few professors from leading colleges, full of an old-fashioned quality know as faith, met and devised a plan. Each was to appeal to his own constituency for an annual subscription toward the necessary expenses. The school was founded. At the present moment it has the active assistance of no less than sixteen colleges. It owns a fine site on Mt. Lycabettus, presented by the Greek government; has in process of erection a commodious and solid building to cost twenty thousand dollars; posesses a library of between fifteen hundred and two thousand volumes; is free from debt, and has an established reputation. Cholera closed the Levant to travellers for one of these years; but no less than eighteen students have been in regular attendance and scores of travellers have enjoyed its advantages. received counsel in their sight-seeing, and disseminated its influences among their friends. The regular students are now instructors and investigators in their own land, and have brought back the enthusiasm for their work which is so strengthened by the seeing of the eye, the touch of the hand, and a general experience of classic lands. One of them, by the generosity of Miss Wolfe, was enabled to extend his researches to Asia Minor, from which he brought away a collection of over nine hundred inscriptions which, in the opinion of the great European epigraphists, is second to no other in historical value, and will, when edited and published, add great luster to American scholarship in the person of Doctor Sterrett.

To secure it in its permanent usefulness the school must now be intrusted to the care of a larger public. It is proposed to raise a general fund of a hundred thousand dollars for the development and endowment of the school and in particular to employ a director of the highest fitness and ability. Our readers need no introduction to the archaeologist, Charles Waldstein, a native of New York, but now connected with the University of Cambridge, England, and with the Fitzwilliam Museum. The committee in charge of the school wishes to redeem the character of America, and to secure him and his work for the benefit of his own countrymen. A beginning has already been made. The kindness of the Philadelphia students and the untiring efforts of Professor Ware brought together for the rendering of the Acharnians in November last such an audience as the old Academy of Music never before sheltered under its roof From that performance and subscriptions since received, a few thousands are already in the treasury of the permanent fund. The colleges appeal for final success to the wider circle of their friends in the same spirit of faith which of itself, and in results already splendid. is a sufficient guarantee for the worth and permanence of the School at Athens."