President Emeritus Given Great Ovation As Students Throng Yard In His Honor

The ovation given to President Eliot by the faculty and alumni of the University in Sanders Theatre yesterday afternoon was enthusiastic. But even more so was the demonstration made by the crowd of 2000 students of the University who crowded around the steps of University Hall later in the afternoon to greet him as he returned from Memorial Hall.

As early as 4.30 o'clock, the crowd had begun to form around the wooden stand which had been erected between the steps of University Hall, and by 5 o'clock the numbers had increased until the throng filled the Yard entirely, swelling back as far as the walls of Stoughton and Holworthy.

The press of the crowd was so great that it required the combined efforts of the college police and a detachment of Cambridge patrolmen to keep it within the required bound. And it was only with the greatest difficulty that they succeeded in opening a passageway through the crowd for the cars of President Eliot and his following.

In the first automobile which drew up before the wooden platform were President Eliot and C. J. Hubbard '24, First Marshal of the Senior Class, as well as several Aids wearing their official red ribbons. From the cars which followed alighted the most prominent members of President Eliot's escort and lined themselves along the length of the platform beside him.

In this group were the nine men who had just made the principal speeches of greeting in Sanders Theatre,--Chief Justice Taft; Governor Cox; Associate Justice E. T. Sanford '85, President of the Alumni Association; President James R. Angell, of Yale; President Lowell; Mr. Charles T. Greve '84, President of the Associated Harvard Clubs; Dean Briggs; Mr. George Wigglesworth '74, President of the Board of Overseers; and Mr. Jerome D. Greene '96.

When the cars had pushed their way out through the crowd again, Hubbard presented Eliot with a parchment signed by officers of every organization in the University as a sign of their respect and affection.

There was a hush of expectancy as President Eliot accepted the parchment and turned to address the waiting throng. Although his voice was not strong, and did not carry beyond the foremost ranks of the crowd, absolute silence reigned throughout.

When the prolonged applause at the end of President Eliot's speech had died away, R. P. Bullard '24, chorister of the Senior class, stepped to the platform, led the crowd first in a long and thunderous Harvard cheer with three "Eliots" on the end, and finally in the first stanza of "Fair Harvard", in which President Eliot, standing straight and tall in the center of the platform, joined his voice with those of the 2000 men before him.