Mendelssohn Glee Club Concert

“As Jem [Ruggles] had demanded my presence at his 'Mendelssohn Glee Club' concert, with such emphasis that I could not avoid it without danger of an unpleasantness in the family, I got myself up after dinner in a 'fore & aft' or 'claw-hammer' coat, etc. & went to Irving Hall—whither Ellie had preceded me, with the Swedish minister & pretty Miss Sims. I sat out part I & then cut. It’s very nice music, very tolerable music, & rendered ad unquem. But it rather afflicted me. I hate to hear so much taste & talent & toil & power of execution expended on these very pretty little part-songs for bass & tenors alone when it might be put to use so much higher. It would be delightful it lie awake an hour some moonlight summer night, & hear these compositions sung as a serenade to some ‘cynosure of neighboring eyes.’ But hearing them in evening dress (as distinguished from ‘night dress’) & in a crowded cackling concert room, is another matter.”