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.

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

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

—Voltaire, Jeannot et Colin