September 12 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Grace King, thanking her for a “carrot” of the celebrated perique tobacco of Louisiana which her brother had secured from a plantation in Natchitoches:

There is power in that tobacco; it makes the article which I usually smoke seem mighty characterless. I am a robust smoker, & equal to a hundred pipefuls of the ordinary thing in a hundred consecutive quarter-hours; but a single pipeful of this masculine persuader makes me want to go & curl up & take a rest — & I do it. Of course I could modify its enthusiasm by mixing it with the baser sort, but that would be to modify champagne with beer, & no truly righteous person would do that.

Sam added he was glad she was coming for a visit in October [MTP; Salsbury 251-2].

Sam also wrote a letter to George W. Smith that he wound up telegraphing or sending with a telegram on Sept. 14. The letter expressed regret at not having written sooner (about the Chicago reunion banquet and his announced presence and toast),

…we have been watching a case of illness in our household, & so I forgot…I have chosen “The American Press” for my toast…if it is humanely possible, I beg for second place after the Chairman, on the program, I am used to early hours and do not feel brisk after 9 [MTP]. See Sept 14 for telegram canceling due to Theodore Crane’s stroke and illness.