Said Shakespeare: "Will my daughter prove a good musician? I think she'll sooner prove a good soldier." But women have never believed him. In 1888 a Boston woman named Caroline Nichols formed the first all-woman symphony orchestra in the U. S. Her "Fadette Women's Orchestra" (named after the heroine of George Sand's novel La Petite Fadette) barnstormed up & down the U. S. on Lyceum courses and vaudeville circuits, grossed more than half a million dollars before disbanding in 1920. Since Maestra Nichols first started swinging her mutton-chop sleeves many a woman's orchestra has been heard in the land. Since...
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