The debut of Arthur Pryor's Band - was Conrad there?

[roughrider]

Thank you very much for your outstanding detective work! This is a fascinating puzzle that is being put together. I have read Paul Bierley's book and the description by another poster of a "grueling" touring schedule for Sousa's Band is exactly spot on. Keep up the great work and your posts!

[roweenie]

And, as you may have noticed, the promise of the highest salaries may have been part of the draw for the Sousa players that left to join Pryor’s band.

Interesting - I hadn't known this. Even more interesting is that in his book "Bands of America", HW Schwartz said that Pryor took his band on a coast-to-coast tour in 1904, and that it "was a financial flop, leaving Pryor three thousand dollars in debt to his musicians for salaries", and that by 1907, "after three hard years, he squared accounts with his musicians, paying them the last cent he owed them".

He doesn't mention details of that 1904 tour, though