Besides the impetus given to music in Philadelphia by the Musical Fund Society, the Germania Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Symphony Society, another group of musicians has been important in this community since 1893. The Manuscript Music Society founded by Dr. Gilchrist for the encouragement of native composers, continues to have a far-reaching effect on our musical life and is of fundamental value. Years passed and the fact became more and more accentuated in the minds of musicians that Philadelphia, a city of 1,500,000 people, was dependent on visiting orchestras for the performance of great orchestral works. But while they were despairing of ever seeing in this city an orchestra akin to the modern ones in Europe and in other American cities, a seed was germinating. Philadelphia had had a taste of what a modern orchestra was, as far back as 1876, when Theodore Thomas played at the Centennial Exhibition, under the auspices of a Women’s Committee, headed by Mrs. E. D. Gillespie. The concerts were given up for lack of support, but a sip of ambrosia can never be forgotten. It is to Mr. Thomas and to Mrs. Gillespie, pioneers in the modern orchestral world, that we owe the Philadelphia Orchestra today. Mrs. Gillespie made another effort in 1881, on her return from a sojourn in Germany, for she realized that there were no musical advantages for students in Philadelphia to compare with those in Germany or in Boston, where Mr. Higginson had lately founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She invited Theodore Thomas to come to Philadelphia, give a series of symphony concerts, and share the profits. A few musicians supported this enterprise, but for the majority the programmes were severe and boring, and when after four seasons the profits were found to be $28.00, the attempt to establish a large modern orchestra in this city was abandoned. Thomas was lost to Philadelphia because the time was not ripe. This be said to our regret, not to our shame. As Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson remarked many years afterwards, one cannot feed meat to babes. Even twenty years later the majority of Philadelphia citizens felt that the season was being forced, when after a number of unsuccessful attempts the Philadelphia Orchestra was founded.