During the winter of the year 1872 I had the pleasure of attending a meeting of the Orchestral Knitting-and-Roast-Veal Association, held at No. 48, Leipzigers Strasse, in Athens on the Spree... It offered to its members a happy combination of concerted music, seasonable industry and solid nourishment, thus gratifying at once their intellectual, moral and physical cravings...During my three hours and a half membership I was witness to his [the Grand Guard] admirable fulfilment of other duties attached to his responsible position. P. G. Bilse was an excellent conductor, and a man of refined musical taste, judiciously conservative in his fidelity to the classics, and yet tolerant of innovation where innovation is justified through intrinsic merit.