February 18 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook lists an invitation to lecture at Central Music Hall, Chicago for $1,000 from Edmund W. Ballentine [MTNJ 3: 603]. Note: No record exists of Sam agreeing to such a lecture, nor is a date for a proposed appearance shown.

J.E. Kingsley & Co., Phila. responded to Sam’s Feb. 14 inquiry, confirming a package of shoes from Wanamaker’s were delivered to 128 for Mrs. Clemens on Feb. 9th, “consequently Mrs. Clemens must be mistaken about the shoes being received after she left on the 11th” [MTP].

W.H. Houston wrote from Peabody, Mass. to Sam, inclined to make a “justifying machine,” and if Sam was “troubled by any definite mechanical difficulty [with the Paige justifier] it is not unlikely that I could help you.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “Brer, tell him I do not know of any difficulty in the justifier.” A copy of Whitmore’s response to Houston is in the file [MTP].