Soapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1882-83: Part #4 - page 4

Soapy Smith's "star" notebook
page 4 - original
1882-1883
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

THIS POST UPDATED
August 24, 2023

OAPY SMITH'S "STAR" NOTEBOOK
Part #4 - page 4

     This is part #4 - page 4, the continuation of deciphering Soapy Smith's "star" notebook from the Geri Murphy's collection. A complete introduction to this notebook can be seen on page 1.
     The notebook is in Soapy's handwriting, and sometimes pretty hard to decipher. The goal is to transcribe the pages, receiving help from readers to identify words I am having trouble with. Included is the original copy of each page, an enhanced copy, a copy in the negative, and a deciphered copy, as tools to aid in translating the notebook. There are 24 pages and this means that there may be upwards of 24 individual posts for this one notebook. Links to the pages can be viewed at the bottom of the post for ease of research. When completed there will be a sourced partial record of Soapy's activities and whereabouts for 1882-1883.
     Important to note that the pages of the notebook do not appear to be in chronological order, with Soapy making additional notes on a town and topic several pages later.

Soapy Smith's "star" notebook
page 4 - enhanced
1882-1883
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

Soapy Smith's "star" notebook
page 4 - negative
1882-1883
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

Here is what I believe to be the correct deciphering of the text. Do you agree, or do you see something else? There are some words I have not yet been able to decipher. Do you know what jam races are? Could they be kin to the "jam auction?" All comments, suggestions and ideas are welcome! I will update the new information to this post.

Soapy Smith's "star" notebook
page 4 - deciphered
1882-1883
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

Rear of page 3 (top).

• Line 1: "Oh SuSana don't you"
  
• Line 2: "grieve for me"
  
• Line 3: "I am going away to"
• Line 4: "love you"
  
• Line 5: "Oh I love that gal"
  
• Line 6: "away out west"
• Line 7: "white folks call"
  
• Line 8: "Susanhah"
  
• Line 9: "Old Man Cares"
• Line 10: "he uses snuff tho"
  
• Line 11: "factory gals they"
  
• Line 12: "ask him roughly"

Interpretation: According to Soapy and his cousin Edwin B. Smith, Soapy played a banjo and sang songs when he was a "cheap John" (kin to a "jam auction") in Round Rock, Texas. It appears that Soapy was inventing his own lyrics. Could the date of this note be an earlier one, 1877-78 when he was still in Texas? Or perhaps Soapy was still playing the banjo?

 

Page 4 (bottom).

• Line 1: "Hillsboro 1st Sept" [Oregon]
• Line 2: "McMinnville 2" [Oregon]
• Line 3: "Independence 4 Sept" [Oregon]
• Line 4: "Corvallis 5" [Oregon]
• Line 5: "Albany 6 or 7th" [Oregon]
• Line 6: "25 gross [thuans? or thuars?] 5.00 125.00"
• Line 7: "1 O'Leary belt wheel 100.00"
• Line 8: "2 gross whistles 5.00 10.00"
• Line 9: "1 Hap Hazzard 15.00"
• Line 10: "W. A. Ergennan [Eungennan?]"
  
• Line 11: "Brighton Beach" [Oregon]
• Line 12: "race course"
• Line 13: "New Orleans"
• Line 14: "Jam races"
• Line 15: "Mobile Memphis" [Tennessee]
• Line 16: "Nashville" [Tennessee]

Interpretation: I believe the year is 1882, but it could also possibly be as early as 1877-78. In those early Texas days he talks of singing songs and playing a banjo. Soapy is traveling through Oregon and purchases an O'Leary gambling belt wheel [gaffed] and some small cheap prizes, the larger primary prizes are cash. People pay to play, in hopes of winning a large cash prize, but only win small junk. Gambling and Gambling Devices by John P. Quinn, 1912. Thanks and credit go to my friend Pete Angelos  for information on the O'Leary Belt Wheel!
     The "O'Leary Belt wheel" that Soapy purchased for $100 is described in the book, Gambling and Gambling Devices by John P. Quinn, 1912 (courtesy of Pete Angelos).


Like the other swindling devices herein described, the mechanism of this contrivance is easily operated, and, when explained, readily comprehended. It is, however, what is called, in the slang of the street, "a sure winner" for the manipulator. Thousands of dollars have been won through its operation in a single day, and one used on the streets of Cincinnati won $125,000 in six months.






The O'leary Belt [Wheel]
Gambling and Gambling Devices
by John P. Quinn, 1912
Courtesy of Pete Angelos

     In Order to work it successfully, it is indispensable that the top of the machine be raised high enough above the heads of the surrounding crowd to prevent the bystanders from seeing the interior, inasmuch as such a view would disclose the apparatus by means of which they would be robbed of their money. With this end in view. the operator generally operates it from a buggy, the upper part of the machine standing about three feet above the floor of the conveyance.
     As will be seen in the cut [picture], the device consists of a hoop-wheel, a supporting rod and a box platform, supporting the rod and wheel. The apparatus may be taken apart and neatly placed in this box. On the box is placed a valise containing money. The wheel, or "belt," is made of brass, and is about sixteen inches in diameter and four inches broad. It contains thirty-two compartments, each one containing a card, which is held in position by a small fold of metal on each of three sides. These cards may be perfectly blank, though usually they contain pictures of famous celebrities. The valise, which is shown in the illustration at the foot of the upright rod, contains money. Inside the metal hoop is a leather belt, of which, at equal distances, are pained numbers representing sums of money, so arranged that one will fall behind each alternate compartment. When the cards are raised, the belt is seen through a rectangular opening at the back.
     The driver of the buggy carries a number of whips. As soon as a crowd has gathered around him (which is certain to happen in a very few moments), he informs the spectators that any one or more may, for $1.00, purchase a chance to win a money prize, varying in amounts from $1.00 to $20.00. Some one having expressed an inclination to buy, the proprietor takes his money and hands him a whip, with which to point to any one of the thirty-two sections of the "hoop" which he may select. The purchaser having rested the whip on a compartment, the operator removes the cards which he has touched. Underneath is shown either a blank space on the belt or one inscribed with a certain sum. If it happens to be the latter, the buyer is given the amount indicated; if the former, he receives nothing.
     The name of this device is supposed to be the same as that of the inventor. A well-known confidence operator by the name of O'Leary flourished some years ago, who was recognized among his companions as an expert manipulator of this apparatus, and it is generally believed among the guild of peripatetic gamesters that the idea of its construction was conceived in his fertile brain, through the direct inspiration of the antipodes of Providence.

Pete Angelos also found some information on the "Hap Hazzard," which is correctly spelled with one z in the 1896 Will and Finck catalog listing it, and also calling it the coffee pot or bee hive.

 

Hap Hazard [Bee Hive]
Gambling and Gambling Devices
by John P. Quinn, 1912
Courtesy of Pete Angelos

     The accompanying illustration gives an excellent idea of the general appearance of this device. It consists of two cones, the inner one of which is placed upon circular pieces of wood, around the rim of which are thirty-two compartments, numbered from one to thirty-two, and separated by thin metal plates. Driven into the surface of the inner cone are small nails or metal pegs, the arrangement of which is a matter of comparative indifference, although they are usually rather close together and approximately equi-distant. The outer cone serves as a cap or case.
     An unsophisticated player can never win except through the consent of the operator. In order to encourage the crowd in playing, “cappers” have to be employed, who are always on hand to draw prizes.
     The ball is in sight from start to finish, so that while the player can see the play and know just where the ball stops, it is impossible to detect the secret working of the machine.
     This machine is specially made to catch “suckers” and is full of honey, but the “suckers” don’t get any of the honey; they are lucky to get a piece of beeswax.

“The little bee sucks the blossom.
The big bee gets the honey,
The sucker does the work,
And the gambler takes the money.”

 

 

O'Leary Belt and Hap Hazard
Will and Finck catalogue
1896
Courtesy of Pete Angelos

 

 

Special thanks to Art Petersen and Pete Angelos
for their skills in deciphering and historical research.

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

April 24, 2017
Part #1
Part #2
Part #3
Part #5 
Part #6
Part #7
Part #8
Part #9 (not published yet)
Part #10 (not published yet)
Part #11 (not published yet)
Part #12 (not published yet)
Part #13 (not published yet)
Part #14 (not published yet)
Part #15 (not published yet)
Part #16 (not published yet)

"There's opportunity in poker.... If Horace Greeley were alive today, his advice wouldn't be 'Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.' Instead, he'd point to that deck of cards on table and say, 'Shuffle up and deal.'"

—Lou Krieger