Andy Alexis wrote: > > I am getting in on this rather late, but one of my historical > interests in California is music, and specifically, the 5 string > banjo. > > The interesting thing to me is that this minstrel troupe, by all > accounts a widely respected one, found it worth their while to > undergo a 3 month sea voyage to perform in San Francisco. My guess > is that there were two reasons: > 1) declining audiences for this type of entertainment or > 2) they could charge enough at inflated CA prices that it was worth > their while.