Another Soapy Smith - Fitzhugh Lee story version

  SOAPY SMITH'S EAGLE
July 4, 1898 Skagway, Alaska
Fitzhugh Lee float

(Click image to enlarge)

 

nother Fitzhuge Lee version

      During the first annual July Fourth parade in Skagway, Alaska, "Soapy" Smith entered a float, carrying a wire cage with a live bald eagle, Soapy had name Fitzhugh Lee, in honor of the Spanish-American War general of the same name.

      The standard version used in my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, states that

An immense American eagle, as full of fight as a cocoanut is of meat, and with an armament that would put the Vesuvius to shame. His beak is a variable [veritable] “iron virgin” for ferocity, his talons are an inch and a half long and sharp as a dagger. He is as large as a large gobbler, measuring 9 feet from tip to tip.
      The great bird was caught … about thirty miles down the canal by Frank Howard and three companions … on a prospecting tour. He was found wedged in between two rock walls…. When they saw him, he showed fight instantly, and they were obliged to lasso him first, then throw a heavy blanket over him. Yesterday the boys arrived in Skaguay with the bird in a big dry goods box, heavily grated, and with a large rope fastening his legs together. Even then he … was open to any engagement to fight.
      The boys took him to Capt. Jeff Smith as a present, a big wire screen cage has been built for him … behind the saloon, where he now is monarch of all … within his reach. Yesterday a full grown hen was put in the cage, and with one stroke he tore her head off, and scattered her limbs and feathers all about him. He had half eaten her before her heart had ceased to quiver. [Unknown Skaguay newspaper clipping. 7/1/1898, author's collection]

      Recently, I came across a new version published in The Klondike Nugget (Dawson, Yukon Territory) on July 4, 1900, two years, three days, after the original story's publication. Which is more accurate will likely remain a mystery to the ages.  

The Klondike Nugget,
Dawson, Y. T.
July 4, 1900

An Eagle With a History.

      Those who were just in Skagway on the fourth of July two years ago have not forgotten the fine specimen of the proud bird, emblematic of freedom, an American eagle, that traveled in a large wire cage in the procession.

      A Week Previous to the Fourth two Indians were out in a canoe fishing in Lynn Canal near the mouth of the Chilkat River. They had a number of fish in the boat and were intently watching their lines in the water when – swoop, hugh – they felt their canoe shiver from end to end, it upset their canoe and the Indians found themselves struggling in the chilly water. But they were not alone; with them was a large bird, and eagle which had came down like a shot from heaven, having been attracted by the fish in the boat. The eagle had struck the boat with such force as to upset it and, at the same time stun itself to such a degree as to render it incapable of flying away until the Indians had time to recover themselves and right their canoe, when they proceeded to capture the author of their fright and sudden immersion.

      The eagle fought desperately, but was finally tied by the feet, muzzled and rendered harmless. The captors brought it to Skagway and sold it to “Soapy” Smith for $15. Four days after the Fourth, and while gazing on the same eagle which was in a cage in the rear of “Jeff’s Parlor,” the man Stewart was held up and robbed of $2800, which robbery led up to “Soapy’s” death and the final scattering of his crowd, a number of whom are still in San Quentin penitentiary, while for others are about to do to be discharged from the U. S. jail at Sitka after having served two years.

      Three months later the eagle, having been kept in captivity all the time, was set free, and when last seen it was upwards of 1000 feet high and sailing in a direct line from Mount St. Elias.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH: The photograph above was taken by Reverend John Sinclair on July 4, 1898. It depicts the moments previous to the big scheduled parade. The float, a freight wagon, holds a large wire cage containing the live American bald eagle given to Soapy Smith a short time earlier. Behind the wagon a man holding a large American flag will be followed by Soapy's private volunteer army, the Skaguay Military Company, in which Soapy is Captain. The small boy dressed as "Uncle Sam" is the 9-year-old son of Soapy's business partner John Clancy. The wagon rests in front of Soapy's saloon, Jeff Smith's Parlor (far right). The white and grey horse between the Parlor and the wagon is Soapy's. He will be riding the same as (officially) the fourth division marshal of the parade, but Soapy manages to force his way to the front of the parade, becoming the unofficial grand marshal.

Fitzhugh Lee: July 4, 2009 

Fitzhugh Lee: pages 520-22, 525, 595.

"Reid carted an old Smith and Wesson six-shooter, an ancient gun he had used in the rip-roaring days of the west and which he considered the best gun in Skagway. He said it never failed him but its failure finally cost his life."

—Matthew M. Sundeen, Alias Soapy Smith, p. 533."

DECEMBER 17

1777: France recognizes American independence.

1791: A traffic regulation in New York City establishes the first street to go "One Way."

1860: Cavalry and Texas Rangers attack the camp of Peta Nocona's Indian Comanche’s on the Pease River in Texas. Ranger Lawrence Ross and his men join a detachment of Cavalry from Camp Cooper and Fort Belknap for the attack. Fourteen Indians are killed, two are taken prisoner, along with a white female, Cynthia Parker, who had been kidnapped as a child in 1839. She is the wife of Peta Nocona and the mother of baby daughter, Quanah Parker.

1866: General Patrick Connors commands that Indians living north of the Platte River “must be hunted like wolves.”

1872: “Scouts of the Plains” written by Ned Buntline played to a packed house staring Bill Cody and Texas Jack Omohundro. Despite not being good actors Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack are a hit.

1882: “The soap fiend with his little tricks is again in town, taking in the four bits and the dollars of the unsuspecting verdants. The game is to roll up little bits of soap in paper with an occasional bank note enclosed, and then mixing all together sells the privilege of choice for the figures named. In nineteen cases out of twenty the buyer gets his nubbin of soap and blue paper, but the bank notes, like hen’s teeth, are too scarce for him to find.” (Arizona Weekly Citizen, Tucson)

1886: Sam Belle is shot and killed by Frank West at a Christmas party.

1895: George Brownell obtains a patent for his paper-twine machine.

1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright succeed on their second attempt at engine powered flight. The aviation age is born when their flying-machine stays aloft for 12 seconds traveling a distance of 102 feet at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.