While travelling, the Luca family suffered greatly from the effects of a cruel caste spirit then so much prevailing,--being often debarred from hotels, and often denied decent accommodation in public conveyances. But this barbarous treatment of those whose fine musical qualities and genteel appearance and deportment--albeit they were of dark complexions--gave them title to enter the very best places aroused the sympathy and indignation of many persons. And so, amidst all their disadvantages, the success and reputation of our artists steadily increased, and the critics accorded them high rank as musicians; Mason, Gottschalk, and others among the finest pianists of the country, receiving Cleveland Luca, the pianist, as an equal. In the year 1854 the family experienced a sad shock in the death of Simeon G. Luca. As before intimated, he was a vocalist and violinist of remarkable powers; and professionally, as well as otherwise, his loss to the troupe was a great one. The vacancy occasioned by his death was filled by the engagement of Miss Jennie Allen of New York. She proved to be a very valuable acquisition to the troupe; for she possessed a rich contralto voice, sang with excellent method, had a graceful, winning stage appearance, and was well known in New York as a very fine pianist. The quartet thus arranged then (in 1857) began to travel more extensively, giving performances in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, where their success artistically and financially exceeded any thing before within their experience. Had they so chosen, they might have visited all the free States with assurance of good fortune. Wherever they went, the bitter color-prejudice, the chilling doubtings, or the cold indifference, displayed by those who had not heard these talented musicians, were rapidly dispelled when on the stage they beheld their easy, graceful appearance, and heard the delightful sounds of harmony that proceeded from the voices and instruments of this accomplished quartet. The writer well remembers the emotions of delight and pride that filled his own breast when at this period, in Ohio, he witnessed for the first time their performances. After their first concert, the town became the scene of a most pleasant commotion. No such music had ever before been heard there, and praises of the "Lucas" were on the lips of all. The family were entertained at the residences of the first citizens, who vied with each other in extending to them the most complimentary attentions. In these homes of wealth and culture, where the study and practice of choice music formed a portion of each day's employment, these talented artists, surrounded by a selected company of educated persons, shone even more brightly than when upon the public stage; for here they could confine themselves to a rendition of that higher class of music so suitable to their own tastes and powers, as well as most welcome to their cultivated audience. But what befell