ALEXANDER VAN RENSSELAER, ESQ. _Opposite_ 16 FRITZ SCHEEL _Opposite_ 31 MRS. ALEXANDER J. DALLAS DIXON _Opposite_ 48 SCHEEL MEMORIAL TABLET _Opposite_ 85 CARL POHLIG _Opposite_ 90 LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI _Opposite_ 100 PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA AND MAHLER CHORUS _Opposite_ 105 ENDOWMENT FUND MEMORIAL TABLET _Opposite_ 126 ENDOWMENT FUND MEMORIAL TABLET _Opposite_ 128 PART I Twenty-five Years of the Philadelphia Orchestra 1900-1925 CHAPTER I A ROAD ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS LONG “_Time Was unlocks the riddle of Time Is_” “BY PARTICULAR DESIRE[1] “On Tuesday next, the 25th inst., at the Assembly Room in Lodge Alley will be performed a Concert of Music, under the direction of Mr. John Palma; to begin exactly at six o’clock. “Tickets to be had at the London Coffee House, at one Dollar each; and no person to be admitted without a ticket.” [1] O. G. Sonneck: “Early Concert Life in America.” Such in January, 1757, was the announcement of the first public concert in Philadelphia of which there is record. So began the approaches to the Philadelphia Orchestra, like the approaches to a great bridge which begin hundreds of feet away from the span. There had been music in private and other entertainments previous to this public concert and in spite of the disapproval of the Society of Friends and of a number of religious sects music found its first refuge in the church. As early as 1701 Justus Falckner, a German Lutheran, wrote as follows: