Was Soapy Smith in Rochester, Minnesota in 1883?

"He invested his $14 and got
two five cent cakes of soap.”
Daily Globe
St. Paul, Minnesota
July 13, 1883

(Click image to enlarge)

 

id Soapy Smith operate in Rochester, Minnesota in 1883?

 

 

 

 

Does the newspaper clipping posted at the top, refer to confidence-man Soapy Smith?

“A man came into town to spend the Fourth. He brought $14, with which he promised to buy his wife a lounge. He saw a man putting a $20 gold piece inside the wrapper around a cake of soap, and selling them for $10. He invested his $14 and got two five cent cakes of soap.” (Daily Globe, St. Paul, Minnesota)

My father told me that in the early part of Soapy's career that he used coins, later changing over to paper currency.

It is known that Soapy operated in the surrounding states in 1883, and positively known that he operated in Minnesota in 1892, but there is no solid provenance that this is our Soapy.

Rochester, Minnesota
August 1883
One month after the soap swindler was there
Courtesy of Minnesota Digital Library

(Click image to enlarge)

"No wife can endure a gambling husband, unless he is a steady winner."

—Thomas Robert Dewar