For years Soapy Smith was the only fakir allowed in Phoenix, Arizona.

"SOAPY" SMITH
A Phoenix man’s recollection
Arizona Republic
Phoenix Arizona
Wed., July 20, 1898
page 5

(Click image to enlarge)

or years he was the only fakir allowed in the city, and a more skillful one has never operated anywhere.

      On December 22, 2019 I posted a newspaper clipping that is a precursor to this newspaper clipping here. Published in the Arizona Republic (Phoenix Arizona) on Wed., July 20, 1898.

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“SOAPY” SMITH

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A Phoenix man’s recollection of the dead gambler

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      Late advices from Dawson City give an account of the dead with his boots on of “Soapy” Smith, at one time the best known gambler on the great divide. A former Coloradoan who had known him since the early eighties, told a Republican reporter yesterday that “Soapy” Smith was directly responsible for the permanent closing of gambling in Denver. It came about in this wise: The Rocky Mountain News, under the talented and lamented [sic] John Arkins, took an occasional fall out of the gambling element, not for the purpose of suppressing gambling, but with the idea of showing its influence from time to time and keeping the gamblers from getting proud and arrogant. One morning in 1887 the News rounded up the local sporting world and included “Soapy” Smith. Mr. Smith had been sitting up the night before steadily losing money at faro and drinking bad whiskey as a counter irritant. He was not in a jovial mood when he read the News’ attack upon himself and his profession. Procuring a heavy cane he sought the places where Mr. Arkins was want to congregate. Within a minute after the meeting the editor of the News was bruised and senseless and that day there was an entry made in a book at the News office. “Gambling must cease in Denver.” It did cease, and though Arkins died long ago, antipathy to gambling is still a part of the policy of the News.

      Like all gamblers, “Soapy” Smith was not without a strong generous vein. One day a collector for Daniel and Frazer, a big dry goods firm, encountered Smith. The collector had lost all of his own money and began dipping into a sack which Smith knew contained the firm’s collections. When the collector had lost $100 of his employer’s cash, Smith quit playing. Wrapping a $100 bill within a $5, unobserved by the youth, he offered it to him for $10, then for $8, $5, $4 and $3. Bystanders wanted to buy the wad at the last named figure, but Smith would sell only to the collector. That young man had been disappointed so much within the preceding hour or two that he wouldn’t invest in golden eagles at a dollar apiece. Smith finally put the money in the collector’s vest pocket and lectured him upon the folly and danger of gambling with other people’s money.

      Smith’s last famous exploit in Denver was the defense of the city hall against Governor Waite when that sanguinary executive was trying to subvert police authority by the aid of the state militia. “Soapy” Smith got his name from selling soap on street corners. For years he was the only fakir allowed in the city, and a more skillful one has never operated anywhere.

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The article is filled with errors. It would be interesting to find out if the "collector for  Daniel and Frazer" is true.

December 22, 2019

"Mrs. Smith,
Dear Friend, yours to hand and glad to hear from you. I know they will say that Jeff had nothing when you went up but I think the Saloon must be a part his [—] only way it looks like he would have paid for something and the 2,100 that they claim that they found in his trunk must belong to him for they claimed that the man lost 3,200 so I think you can get that. Did you get Jeff’s personal effects? I suppose they stole everything. I will be here for a week, so write to me here as I will get it. Let me hear all the news.
Yours as Ever
Bascom Smith,
Care of Tom Sanders Saloon"

— Bascomb Smith, Alias Soapy Smith, p. 554.

DECEMBER 24

1814: The War of 1812 between the U.S. and England ends with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.

1851: A fire in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, devastates 35,000 volumes.

1859: The entire population of Boulder, Colorado Territory equaling 200 men and 17 women attends the Christmas dance at Bill Barney's dance hall.

1864: Boise of Idaho becomes the capitol of the territory.

1865: the Ku Klux Klan is organized by veterans of the Confederate Army in Pulaski, Tennessee.

1866: A detachment of Company C, 4th Cavalry, from Ft Clark, Texas battle with Indians on Mud Creek near the post.

1877: Outlaw Henry Underwood, member of the Sam Bass Gang, is arrested for complicity in the Big Springs, Texas train robbery of September 18, 1877. He is jailed in Kearney, Nebraska, but will escape and be recaptured before being brought to trial.

1877: A. A. McSween and John Chisum are jailed on embezzlement charges in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Territory.

1880: Outlaw Billy the Kid is put in chains at Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory.

1881: Outlaw Jesse James dresses as Santa Claus in Missouri for his two children, Jesse Jr. Age 6 and Mary age 2. It is Jesse's last Christmas before being killed.

1888: The Solomon-Bowie stage is robbed of its mail in Arizona Territory.

1888: Outlaw brothers Harry and George Gordon rob the Eastern Overland Express train from above, repelling down rope ladders down the side of the train to enter the Express car. They made off with about $5,000. Harry Gordon was captured in February 1889 in Kansas City, tried and convicted. Brother George was never captured, but was killed during an armed robbery in the East.

1889: 23-year-old Robert Leroy “Butch Cassidy” Parker enters the life of an outlaw when he pulls his first holdup of the San Miguel Bank in Telluride, Colorado.

1893: Soapy Smith’s brother-in-law, William S. Light, accidentally shoots and kills himself when the train he is riding home for Christmas on suddenly breaks hard forcing Light’s revolver to the floor where it discharges a bullet into his groin, slicing an artery. He bleeds to death where he sits.

1894: Deputy Sheriff Pike Landusky confronts and attacks outlaw Harvey Logan alias Kid Curry believing Logan was involved romantically with his daughter. Landusky files assault charges against Logan and has him arrested and beaten. A bond is paid by friends of Logan and three days later Logan shoots Pike dead.

1906: Reginald A. Fessenden is the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.