Soapy Smith Short Shots

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Sunday, July 10 8th Annual Soapy Smith Costume Party 8:00 p.m. to Midnight The Inner Circle. Enjoy turn-of-the-century gambling and drink a “toast to Soapy’s ghost”! There is an extra $5 charge for everyone entering the Magic Castle on Soapy Smith Night – an extra fin will get you in. Come as your favorite Klondike character – grafter, dance hall girl, prospector, or soiled dove – and win valuable prizes. All proceeds go to the Dai Vernon Fund, the humanitarian endowment left by the Professor to assist fellow magicians in times of need.

Everyone in attendance will receive $100 in cold hard Soapy cash to use for betting, and the School for Scoundrels will be wandering the Inner Circle, dealing Faro and offering other fun-filled ways to separate the sucker from his sugar!

A charity auction of 1890s memorabilia and contemporary magic will be held. Pop Haydn and Chef Anton will be on hand, demonstrating the ways to fleece their fellow felons. There will be music from Professor Dave Bourne’s Medicine Show Band and Pop will be peddling his Amazing Miracle Oil!

Microfilm from the Royal British Columbia Museum has arrived. This is the papers, diary, and photographs of the Rev. John Sinclair collection. A lot of early Skagway history is here. I’ll be reporting on this.

The Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park plans to have a float in the Skagway July 4 parade, based on Jeff Smith’s Parlor.

“The Alamosa Independent-Journal denies that the republican party is endeavoring to boost Soapy Smith into prominence. It was Denver republicans who boosted Soapy to the third story of the city hall some time since and placed him in charge of the dynamite department of the campaign. Oh, yes, Soapy Smith is prominent in the councils of the republican party, but merit has boosted him to the place.

Aspen Weekly Times, September 8, 1894.

1884: Arrested again in San Francisco (see January 1) for operating the prize package soap racket.

Jeff Smith

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