Confidence man "Soapy" Smith in Georgetown, Colorado, 1885

"Loose money in Georgetown"
Denver Rocky Mountain News
September 14, 1885

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id "Soapy" Smith operate in Georgetown, Colorado, in September 1885?

Short answer: Most likely. 

 

The following was published in the Denver Rocky Mountain News, September 14, 1885.

There must be considerable loose money in Georgetown, to judge from the number of quack doctors and soap and jewelry peddlers and other confidence men who have been flocking in here for the past few weeks.

This is the first I have seen where Soapy Smith likely went to Georgetown, known as the "silver queen of Colorado." It makes perfect sense to me that Soapy operated there. Soapy's timeline for this period is sparse but does open up the possibility of a trip to Georgetown.
     On August 25, 1885, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reported a robbery in Denver in which the victim was drugged.

John Lewis wandered into a Larimer Street dive last night and became intoxicated. While in that condition he was placed in a hack, taken outside the city limits and robbed of between $400 and $500. He was then dumped out on the prairie where he lay insensible till nearly morning, when he made his way to the city and reported his loss. He claims that he was drugged, and he probably was, as the gang who hangs around the notorious resort would not stop at murder if a $5 bill were in sight. This is the second occurrence of the kind that has happened at the same place within the past week.

Drugging victims in saloons became popular for a period in Denver. It has not been established that Jeff knew anyone involved in these robberies or whether he was receiving tribute from those responsible. It can be guessed that he was and that probably he called a halt to them. They shocked the residents of Denver, who demanded something be done. A large percentage of these drug-induced robberies dropped off as quickly as they had begun, but they did not cease entirely.

     Interest in arresting the guilty did not come from law enforcement but the ever-vigilant Rocky Mountain News. On the day of the story about the Lewis robbery, the News reported that about thirty bunco men were headed for Boulder and the fireman’s tournament:

“There are pickpockets and soap men and shell men, eight die men, top and bottom men, flim-flamers and the smiler with the shells, and all the rest of the boys.”

Associating Soapy Smith and “the boys” with the robberies was an easy link for readers. Did the robbery of Lewis raise the profile of Soapy and the bunco brotherhood? The answer seems clear. Why else would “the brotherhood’s” travel to Boulder be newsworthy?
     Nineteen days after the Georgetown report, on October 3, 1885, "Jeff Smith" and Mike Rainey are arrested for assaulting John Koch, a probable victim.

CONCLUSION: Though Soapy's name is not mentioned in Georgetown, it's likely that the soap peddler in Georgetown was Soapy Smith.

 

 

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

"History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days."

—Winston Churchill

Is this the first record of "Soapy" Smith running the soap sell racket in Denver?

IS THIS SOAPY SMITH?
Denver Rocky Mountain News
May 4, 1881

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IRST EVIDENCE OF SOAPY SMITH IN DENVER?

 

 

 

 

     In my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, I use George T. Buffum's eye-witness account as the earliest account of Soapy Smith performing the infamous prize package soap sell in Denver. The year is 1879. Mr. Buffum recorded what he witnessed in a 1906 collection of sketches of his frontier experiences.

I first saw him in the spring of 1879. Standing in front of the old Grand Central Hotel one day, I saw approaching me a man driving a bay horse hitched to a light buggy. He stopped by my side and lifted a box from the bottom of the buggy seat, and I noticed that it contained several cakes of soap. Looking at me squarely in the face, he said, “Will you allow me to present you with fifty dollars?” I declined with thanks, though such benevolence might have received more consideration had I been more familiar with his game.[1]

     In an 1889 Rocky Mountain News interview, when asked how long he had lived in Denver, Soapy replied, “Since 1879, but not steady...,”[2]. This does match the year George Buffum claims to have seen Soapy, but it is not solid evidence. 

     Recently, I took the time to research the Rocky Mountain News, using the search engines on GenealogyBank newspaper archives and came across the news clipping at top.

The soap and lottery man is the centre[sic] of attraction on the streets now evenings, and the hard working laborer pays fifty cents for one cent's worth of soap and the privilege of drawing a blank.

Could this be the first newspaper evidence of Soapy operating the prize package soap racket in Denver? There is always the chance that it is another bunko man operating the soap racket. 

     Business licenses obtained by 21-year-old Jefferson Randolph Smith II during this period confirm that he was a nomad confidence man traveling around the West. Most of the licensing was not recorded or has been lost in time, but a few examples survive to give a glimpse of his travels. The earliest known, was sent to “J. R. Smith Esqr.,” in Fort Worth, Texas, in response to his request from the Georgia comptroller general in Atlanta, dated March 3, 1881.

Dear Sir- Your favor of the 24th to grant lender the lease of this state you will have to pay a sum of twenty-five dollars for each day’s exhibition in every city or town of five thousand inhabitants; twenty dollars in city or town of four thousand & under five thousand inhabitants; fifteen dollars in city or town with less than four thousand inhabitants; said tax to be paid to the tax collector in each county where the exhibition takes place. Yours Respectfully W. A. Wright, Comp Genl.

Compared with licensing costs secured elsewhere, the Georgia fees were very high, making it doubtful Jeff ever worked his criminal trade within the borders of his home state.

     At the end of the month, March 30, 1881, Soapy is in a New Orleans courtroom for "assault and battery." Thirty-six days later the Denver soap racket story is published, having given Soapy plenty of time to be in Denver to operate the swindle. The next location known for Soapy is dated eight months later, when Soapy, listed as being from "Fort Worth," and Soapy's con-man partner, John T. Waller, listed as being from "Denver," register at a hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

     There were other prize package soap swindlers operating around the nation. and this is the first newspaper mention I could find regarding them in Colorado. Considering the timeline of Soapy's whereabouts during this period, it is very possible, perhaps even probable, that Jeff R. Smith was running the con game in Denver, where he would earn the alias of "Soapy," known across the West for the soap swindle.

     Fourteen months later, July 16, 1882, the Denver Rocky Mountain News published another incident involving the soap racket swindle.

 

Is this also Soapy?
Denver Rocky Mountain News
July 16, 1882

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The cheap soap man with his prize money scheme made his appearance here Thursday. After he had opened up his wares on the street and inaugurated his deceptive prize scheme, he was promptly taken in tow by an officer of the law. He was given a chance to get out of town in a hurry. 

Is this Soapy? Or another confidence man?

 

     Seven days prior to the above publication, Soapy is running the soap sell in Astoria, Oregon. This is confirmed in one of his notebooks. It is standard during this nomad period that Soapy rarely stayed long in anyone town. Sometimes he left the state, working a period of time in another state, only to return to the previous state, sometimes even the previous town! This was plenty of time for Soapy to arrive in Denver, work the swindle, and travel back to Portland, Oregon where about fifteen days later, on August 2nd, he is once again operating the soap con.

     Once again, Soapy's timeline does not contradict with the possibility that he operated the soap swindle in both published incidences, or one of them, or neither of them.

     The next example is still possibly Soapy's handiwork.

 

Is this Soapy?
Denver Rocky Mountain News
July 29, 1882

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The patent soap peddlers, who make pretensions of giving prize money packages with their soap, were taken in by the limb of the law Thursday evening immediately after they had commenced their operations on the street corner.

Is this Soapy? Possibly, but less likely than the other two published examples. The clipping mentions that the soap men were "taken in" on Thursday, which would be July 27, 1882. If Soapy was given bond that evening, he had six days to get to Portland, Oregon by August 2, 1882, the date the Daily Standard published the article, "The Latest Racket," detailing a soap racket operating there.

 

CONCLUSION: The next best piece of evidence would be to find "Jeff R. Smith" listed as signing a Denver hotel register near the dates of the three newspaper stories. Even better would be to find one of Soapy's personal notebooks detailing his travels during this period. Though these are not provenance, I will take the presumption that one, two or possibly all three, are about Soapy Smith. 

 

NOTES:

[1] Buffum, pp. 26-27.
[2] Rocky Mountain News, August 6, 1889.

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"All the ancient histories, as one of our wits say, are just fables that have been agreed upon."

—Voltaire, Jeannot et Colin