When Theodore Thomas left the New York Philharmonic he accepted the musical directorship of the American Opera Company, to which we have already referred in a previous chapter. When he got back to New York after an absence of two seasons he attempted to revive his old orchestral organization, in spite of the fact that there were three competing orchestras in the field. His attempt was a dismal failure and he found himself stranded without money, engagements or prospects. At this ebb-tide of his affairs he met Mr. C. N. Fay, of Chicago, who inquired whether he would be willing to go to that city if he were given a permanent orchestra. 'Oh,' said Thomas, 'I'd go to hell if you would give me a permanent orchestra.' So he went to Chicago. Before the fire of 1871 Chicago had an orchestra of its own, conducted by Hans Balatka. Then it was without one until Mr. Fay issued his invitation to Theodore Thomas in 1890. Fay succeeded in getting fifty men to guarantee $1,000 each for a season and formed the Orchestra Association. After taking a year in which to organize his players, Thomas started the career of the orchestra that bears his name in 1891. A most instructive essay might be written upon the succession of difficulties, financial and other, which the Theodore Thomas Orchestra was compelled to surmount before it reached the position of solid permanency which it now occupies. That it did surmount those difficulties is due chiefly to the iron obstinacy of Thomas himself and to the persistent optimism of Mr. Bryan Lathrop, who steered the enterprise through many critical situations. Shortly before his death on January 4, 1905, Thomas succeeded in realizing his desire to secure for the orchestra a home of its own. Had he failed in that object it is quite probable that the orchestra would have been disbanded after his death, but in succeeding he raised the orchestra to the position of an institution in which Chicago has since taken an increasingly great pride.