Sam is in Carson City (with Orion) from covering the Territorial Legislature of Nevada for the Enterprise. He writes home to Virginia about the social scene and the balls and parties because the town is craving women – dealers at Faro tables and the whores of D street or the taxi dancers of Hurdy-gurdy cellars are there (17:1) but women with bonnets stopping on the way to California made the town incredibly depressed every time they pulled out of town.