Comedy predominated in the theatrical performances. The players were “the young gentlemen of the town.” At one of the entertainments they gave John O’Keefe’s comic opera _The Poor Soldier_, and a farce by Arthur Murphy called _The Apprentice_.[98] There were also performances of a more professional character. Bromley and Arnold, two professional actors, conducted a series of theatrical entertainments extending over a period of several weeks. The plays which they rendered are hardly known to-day. At a single performance[99] they gave a comedy entitled _Trick upon Trick_, or _The Vintner in the Suds_; a farce called _The Jealous Husband_, or _The Lawyer in the Sack_; and a pantomime, _The Sailor’s Landlady_, or _Jack in Distress_. Another play in the series was Edward Moore’s tragedy, _The Gamester_.[100] Much of Grant’s Hill was unenclosed. Clumps of trees grew on its irregular surface, and there were level open spaces; and in summer the place was green with grass, and bushes grew in profusion. Farther in the background were great forest trees. The hill was the pleasure ground of the village. Judge Henry M. Brackenridge, a son of Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge dwelling on the past, declared that “it was pleasing to see the line of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen and children, ... repairing to the beautiful green eminence.”[101] On this elevation “under a bower, on the margin of a wood, and near a delightful spring, with the town of Pittsburgh in prospect,” the Fourth of July celebrations were held.[102] On August 2, 1794, the motley army of Insurgents from Braddocksfield rested there, after having marched through the town. Here they were refreshed with food and whisky, in order that they might keep in good humor, and to prevent their burning the town.[103] Samuel Jones has left an intimate, if somewhat regretful account of the early social life of Pittsburgh. “The long winter evenings,” he wrote, “were passed by the humble villagers at each other’s homes, with merry tale and song, or in simple games; and the hours of night sped lightly onward with the unskilled, untiring youth, as they threaded the mazes of the dance, guided by the music of the violin, from which some good-humored rustic drew his Orphean sounds. In the jovial time of harvest and hay-making, the sprightly and active of the village participated in the rural labors and the hearty pastimes, which distinguished that happy season. The balls and merry-makings that were so frequent in the village were attended by all without any particular deference to rank or riches. No other etiquette than that which natural politeness prescribed was exacted or expected.... Young fellows might pay their _devoirs_ to their female acquaintances; ride, walk, or talk with them, and pass hours in their society without being looked upon with suspicion by parents, or slandered by trolloping gossips.”[104]