Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/306

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general that in grandeur, splendor of buildings, decorations, equipages, numbers, commerce, shipping and indeed everything, it far surpasses all I ever saw, or ever expect to see in America." He was entertained at the elegant residence of Miles Brewton and records a remarkable conversation which would seem to have forecasted the results of the war between the States eighty-eight years later. The same house stands to-day, the finest survival of colonial architecture to be found among the residences in the city.

He attended a concert of the St. Cecilia Society, where he saw upwards of two hundred and fifty ladies, and he notes, with evident wonder, that three members of the permanent band were employed at a salary of five hundred guineas a year, and another musician was occasionally employed at fifty guineas a month. His description of the St. Cecilia concert is brief, but the longest that has ever appeared in print.

This society, one hundred and thirty-five years old, the oldest "dancing club" on the continent, is in active operation to-day, though the musical feature has long since disappeared. Now, as in Quincy's time, admission