Venue(s):
Columbia College
Event Type:
Band
Status:
Published
Last Updated:
24 June 2012
“Between each of these [orations], agreeable music was given by Helmsmuller’s Band. A class song was sung, a smoking song, one or two other songs, and at last a parting song, all spiritedly given by the class. . . .
During a brief interruption or two caused by small spurts of rain, dancing in the college class rooms was found an eminently practicable substitute for oratory and music. A bevy of very lovely young ladies—and some extremely pleasant looking older ones, too—were present as friends of the departing class; and if the young gentlemen have as good taste in selecting professions as in selecting female friends, their success in life is sure.”
Program. Includes lyrics to the class song, “Marching Along.” “[I]nvitations to be present were sent to about three hundred or four hundred of our most refined citizens, and with few exceptions they all attended the celebration. . . . [There was a] fine band that supplied the music. . . .
[The verse and chorus of “Marching Along.”] There were about a dozen more verses of this song, all equal to the one given above, and sung very well, by the class. . . .
These exercises were succeeded by terpsichorean performances, which were kept up with considerable grace and spirit till an advanced hour of the evening.”