SAW THE FAKE COLLISION: Oct 2, 1896, Bascomb Smith is arrested for concealed weapons

SAW THE FAKE COLLISION
Bascomb Smith goes on a tear.
Denver Post
October 2, 1896

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 

hiskey induced a desire for war and Smith carried his artillery with the bravado of a Leadville militiaman.

 

 

 

On the early morning of April 21, 1895 "Soapy" and his younger brother Bascomb, who had been drinking heavily on Saturday evening, started in on causing trouble in Denver. After exposing that the chief of police was inside one of the cities brothel's, they decided to visit the saloon of their enemies, Sam and Lou Blonger. Finding neither were in, the Smith's went into the Arcade Clubrooms and started an argument. When proprietor, John Hughes tried to stop the Smith's they unleashed their rage on him, nearly killing him. Soapy and Bascomb were arrested and a trial date was set. Soapy fled the state before the trial, and before doing so, he desperately tried to convinced Bascomb to come with him, but for whatever reason, Bascomb chose to remain in Denver, and on September 20, 1895 he was sentenced to one year for his part in the attack on John Hughes.

 

Fast forward one year, Bascomb Smith is released, and though he swears he is reformed, he falls back into bad habits. The newspaper article from the Denver Post, October 2, 1896 is transcribed below.

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SAW THE FAKE COLLISION
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Which drives Bascomb Smith to drink and Dora Harris to jail.

      When Bascomb Smith was released from the county jail a few weeks ago he swore by the beard of Ali that he would forever lead a life of rectitude and control any unruly desire to terminate a McKinley argument with a Colts’ 44. He shunned saloons and avoided the lair of the tiger until his pals marveled. The Temptations of a great city had no attractions for the reformed gun artist and chronic rounder, who deviated not one jot from the straight but narrow path, yet Bascomb finally plunged headlong from grace. In an evil moment he permitted himself to part with half a dollar, and was one of the 18,683 “suckers” who witnessed the pre-arranged locomotive collision last Wednesday. Related closely to Jefferson Randolph Smith, Past Grand Imperial Potentate of the Sacred Order of Fakirs, Bascomb declared the Elyria affair too raw to catch a Missouri tie chopper. Smith persuaded himself to remain until the big swindle had finally been consummated, then he vanished, intent on an orgie which would make Market street nervous. He prefaced his trip by a select collection of profane expletives which he showered on the management of the collision fake, and bled himself to the haunts of the sinful. Then Bascomb drank. Any old liquid concocted that came his way was gulped down as quickly as an alligator swallows a Mississippi Coon.
     Bascomb's thirst continued all of yesterday and far into the night. Whiskey induced a desire for war and Smith carried his artillery with the bravado of a Leadville militiaman. At midnight Bascomb became involved in an argument with Miss Dora Harris, who was a sweet-faced babe in gay “Paree” just 45 years ago. Bascomb and Dora flirted and quarreled. When the reformed county jail graduate missed a roll of $25 he threatened to inaugurate an extended slumber in Riverside for the giddy French girl. She retaliated by having Bascomb jugged for carrying concealed weapons. Now la petite Dora languishes in a prison cell pending her trial on a charge of larceny from the person.
     And the pre-arranged collision fake is responsible for it all.

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If the article is correct, the train collision that occurred "last Wednesday" took place on September 30, 1896. The other well-known crash exhibit occurred fifteen days earlier, on Tuesday, September 15, 1896, and ended in tragedy as both train boilers exploded, killing three spectators and injuring many more. Because of the article heading, Saw the Fake Collision, I believe the train crash Bascomb witnessed was a duplicate copy, taking advantage of the staged crash and horrific incident in Texas? I could not find anything on the staged crash of September 30th, but there is film and photographs of the crash fifteen day prior.

• "Grand Imperial Potentate of the Sacred Order of Fakirs."
  
• Love it!

• "Bascomb declared the Elyria affair too raw to catch a Missouri tie chopper"
  
• I don't know what this means. 
• Elyria is a town in Ohio, if that means anything.

• "When the reformed county jail graduate missed a roll of $25 he threatened to inaugurate an extended slumber in Riverside for the giddy French girl"
  
• Riverside is the main cemetery in Denver, so Bascomb was threatening to kill Dora Harris.

"The confidence game took many forms, but its underlying principle was always the same: to let the mark beat himself, using his cupidity as the motor of his doom."

—Luc Sante