Random Sequence: meerschaum

"He packed his cigars, meerschaum, and a travelling case of liquors; then re-seated himself, and smoked at his ease, while the weary, patient woman attended to the rest."
--Marion Harland, "Nobody to Blame", Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, June 1864

(I found a bound copy of several issues of Godey's in my basement and have been flipping through the dusty pages.)

meerschaum = a type of tobacco pipe with a bowl made of a carved, white mineral (hydrous magnesium silicate); also called "sepiolite".

You don't see many of those these days....

The weird thing about this bound copy of Godey's (an American magazine) is that the issues are all from the 1860s, and there is not a single unambiguous mention anywhere of the American Civil War.