So far, the concert-life of Charleston, from what we know of it, does not at all compare with that of contemporary New York, Philadelphia, or Boston. After the war it improved somewhat, but the intrusion of theatrical people into the concert field immediately following the war was very unfortunate from a musical point of view. With the exception of a subscription series started in 1786 by Joseph Lafar, and concerning which we have no particulars, there do not appear to have been any concerts worthy of the name until after 1790. They were simply scrappy theatrical entertainments, disguised sufficiently to evade the law which seems to have existed in restraint of such. The following advertisement shows the _modus operandi_, which is very suggestive of the 'Sacred Concerts' given on Sundays in many of our present-day vaudeville houses. 'On Saturday evening at the Lecture Room, late Harmony Hall, will be a Concert, between the parts will be rehearsed (gratis) the musical piece of _Thomas and Sally_. To which will be added, a pantomime, called _Columbia_, or _Harlequin Shipwreck'd_.' Even acrobatic performances were introduced into the concerts of this period. Several concerts for charity were given in 1791, and may have been real concerts, though we have no particulars concerning them. George Washington attended one in that year, at which, he says, 'there were at least 400 ladies the number and appearance of which exceeded anything of the kind I had ever seen.' Excusably enough, perhaps, he was not sufficiently interested in the music to say anything about it. From 1793 on, however, the concert-life of Charleston was very rich. Resides the subscription concerts of the St. Cecilia[33] Society, there were regular series by the Harmonic Society, which appeared in 1794, as well as frequent concerts given by individual musicians. Much of this activity was due to the influx of French musicians following the revolutions in France and St. Domingo. We find most of the benefit concerts from 1793 to the end of the century given by people with French names, and there is a decided leaning toward French composers, such as Grétry, Gossec, Davaux, Michel, La Motte, Guenin, and Gluck. However, the concerts on the whole were sufficiently eclectic, featuring also the compositions of Haydn, Pleyel, Stamitz, Gyrowetz, Corelli, Giornovichi, Hoffmeister, Viotti, Martini, dementi, Sacchini, Jarnovick, Krumpholtz. Handel, Cimarosa, and even Mozart.[34] Certainly the music lovers of Charleston did not suffer from lack of variety.