Hard to imagine Ludlow and Clemens not meeting, though if they did
one would suspect a letter saying so.  Perhaps there were more letters
from that time than have survived/turned up--or perhaps the meeting was
not memorable.  But the praise from Ludlow of Mark Twain in the ERA
piece is emphatic, which leads me to suspect that they did meet.

Given the way that the early SF DRAMATIC CHRONICLE operated, with
reporters like Clemens writing anonymous squibs aimed at each other,
I would agree that the note mentioned before is a typical jab, possibly
total fiction, more likely based on seeing SLC and his friend weaving
down the street after tippling a few.

If smoking anything other than tobacco was something Sam might have done
(and I have never seen any contemporary hint that he did), than opium
rather than hashish would surely have been easier to get in San Francisco in
1865.