I must not omit one historic fact, namely, —theatres in Boston were not allowed to give dramatic or operatic performances on Saturdays (too near Sunday !), and that gave us musicians our freedom; hence the custom of devoting Saturdays to society concerts. I recall another fact: several churches did not have organs, so they called in the assistance of the “ devil’s instruments ”—fiddles and cornets—to help the singers.    I played the clarinet for two years in Father Streeter’s church on Hanover Street We had a little orchestra composed of a violin (Mr. William Warren), clarinet (T. Ryan), contrabass (Mr. Burdett), and ophicleide (Mr. Cutting).

 I must not omit one historic fact, namely, —theatres in Boston were not allowed to give dramatic or operatic performances on Saturdays (too near Sunday !), and that gave us musicians our freedom; hence the custom of devoting Saturdays to society concerts. I recall another fact: several churches did not have organs, so they called in the assistance of the “ devil’s instruments ”—fiddles and cornets—to help the singers. I played the clarinet for two years in Father Streeter’s church on Hanover Street. We had a little orchestra composed of a violin (Mr. William Warren), clarinet (T. Ryan), contrabass (Mr. Burdett), and ophicleide (Mr. Cutting).