May 18 Monday – In Johannesburg, a journalist from the Johannesburg Star interviewed Sam in bed for an hour at the Grand National Hotel. The interview was taken in the forenoon; it ran this same day [Scharnhorst 300]. A. Bonamici of Bonamici & Co. was Sam’s manager in Johannesburg gave Sam a small, engraved gold brick. At 3:30 in the afternoon Sam took a drive with Mrs. John Hays Hammond, and Adele Chapin, wife of the American consul Robert Chapin, followed by a tea at the Chapins’ house with “beautiful young American women” (and some husbands); the tea lasted until 5:45 p.m. Sam then took the Chapins’ carriage “& rushed home for some rest.”

In the evening Sam gave his “At Home” (No. 1) lecture in the Standard Theatre to a capacity crowd of 570 who paid high prices [Philippon 16]. Sam wrote the next day to Livy: 

Had a grand time at the theatre. Packed, & 25 or 30 on the stage. Had cold-beef supper & went off to bed [May 19 to Livy].

Natalie Hammond (Mrs. John Hays Hammond) telegraphed Sam (enclosed in Sam’s first May 19 to Livy): “Your kind letter found on my arrival this morning. Its friendly tone both touched and cheered me in my trouble” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s initial letter to Natalie is not extant.