When I was on the European tour of 1930 (see Vol. I, No. 2 - Kovar article. Ed.) . . I smoked a certain brand of European cigarettes which came in flat metal boxes; and I saved these containers - quite a number - lined them with cotton, and numbered the reeds which I played on for important bassoon passages. After a period of time when I again had to play these solos, the same reeds did not always preserve their vitality and I had to try another reed. However, there was one Mechler reed which lasted me for many years which I used to play Tschaikowsky's 4th Symphony, as I wanted to make a fine diminuendo to a ppp on the F on the last note of the second movement. I played an open F and it held up nicely, and it is remarkable that this particular reed lasted so long.
During World War II, I had dozens of new Mechler reeds, which I decided to store in a safe place; so I went to Trenton, New Jersey, and rented a safe deposit box in a bank . . . as I thought Trenton would be a less vulnerable city should the Germans bomb out N.Y. City. And fortunately, after the war, I had plenty of reeds, as Mechler died shortly after.