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| Soapy Smith's "star" notebook Page 10 - original copy 1882 Courtesy of Geri Murphy |
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OAPY SMITH'S "STAR" NOTEBOOK
Part #10 - Page 10
This is part #10 - page 10, dated 1882. This is a 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(s) are in Soapy's handwriting, and often times pretty hard to decipher. A large part of this series of posts is to transcribe the pages, one-at-a-time, and receive help from readers on identifying words I am having trouble with, as well as correcting any of my deciphered words. My long time friend, and publisher, Art Petersen, has been a great help in deciphering and adding additional information.
I will include the original copy of each page, an enhanced copy of each page, a copy in negative, and a copy with typed out text, as tools to aid in deciphering the notes. There are a total of 24 pages. This means that there may be upwards of 24 individuals posts for this one notebook. Links to the past and future pages (pages 1, 2, 3, etc.) will be added at the bottom of each 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.
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| Soapy Smith's "star" notebook Page 10 - enhanced 1882 Courtesy of Geri Murphy |
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| Soapy Smith's "star" notebook Page 10 - negative 1882 Courtesy of Geri Murphy |
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Below is what I believe to be the correct deciphering of the text, dated 1882. Do you agree, or do you see something else? All comments, suggestions and ideas are welcome! I will update the new information to this post.
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The fact that Soapy traveled around Oregon, following the circus, we can conclude that he had an arrangement with the circus, compensating them well for permission to operate within, or near the grounds where the circus was set up. In other documents it is shown that Soapy purchased "fair lists" from his sporting supply companies. These lists were a fair directories, listing the cities and dates where they opened. This is likely why Soapy was making the notations in his notebooks, as a travel planning log.
It is believed that Soapy was not working alone. He likely had men assisting him as shills, boosters and cappers. It is also possible that during this period Soapy was working with John Taylor, a long time friend and mentor.
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| Soapy Smith Prize package soap sell racket |
Page 10
- Line 1: "First stand (or "start?") in Oregon with Shermans Show"
Art Petersen writes,
What an interesting page. It's the most clear so far because a nearly exact correlation with Oregon cities is found in The Great Sherman Circus advertisements in July and August issues of The Oregonian.Art located the following newspaper ads from 1882, meaning that Soapy's notebook page also dates 1882.
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| Great Sherman Circus (Show) The Oregonian August 30, 1882 |
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| Great Sherman Circus (Show) The Oregonian September 14, 1882 |
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| THE CIRCUS Roseburg Review Roseburg, Oregon July 22, 1882 |
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The Sherman circus went to Roseburg, and probably a few other towns in Oregon in which Soapy passed up, or didn't record. The above newspaper clipping (thanks to Art Petersen) from Roseburg, Oregon, reads in detail of the circus' arrival, includes a band parading the town streets. The night performance was "perfectly jammed, a hundred or more sitting upon the ground in front of the seats." The show included "tumbling," a trapeze act, horizontal bar exercise, "tight rope specialties," and many other "marvelous feats."
Art continues,
It appears to me that Jeff set out to follow The Great Sherman Circus and Troupe of Educated Horses from Aurora on the 30th to Salem on Sep 15 and 16. It seems likely he copied the dates from the published itinerary of the circus. The itinerary matches the notebook exactly, except for Salem. The circus did go there, though; the 15th and 16th for Salem is published in a later paper. The first ad I found with those dates is in a September 14 issue of The Oregonian. For his notebook list, he might have picked up the Salem dates from someone with the circus and added it. The first time Jeff's list of cities appears in the advertisement is on August 24, 1882, so that's the earliest the list could have been copied onto the notebook page.
Oregon City heads the published list, but Jeff didn't copy that, so it would seem he did not plan on going there OR that it was too late to go there.
- Line 2: "Aurora [Oregon] [Aug] 30th 000"
There is a mystery to solve here. Can you help?
Art writes,
What do the 000s on lines 2 and 8 mean? Hmmm. These are in contrast to the Xs, and once with XX, that appear on other lines. (The XX might be for 2 lines, one for line 10 and one for line 11.) The Xs are in contrast to lines 11 through 14, which have no marking. Do the zeros mean he didn't make money, OR, in contrast, that he did ("cleaned up" a thousand or more!)? The Xs might mean he went to the city when the circus was there OR they might mean he intended to go. But for the last 3 or 4 cities, no Xs appear. So did he not go to those cities OR did he not plan to go to them?
- Line 3: "East Portland [Oregon] [Aug] 31st. X."
- Line 4: "Hillsboro [Oregon] Sept 1st. X."
- Line 5: "McMinnville [Oregon] Sept 2nd. X"
- Line 6: "Independence [Oregon] 4 Sept. X"
- Line 7: "Corvallis [Oregon] 5th Sept. X"
- Line 8: "Lebanon [Oregon] 6th 000"
- Line 9: "Albany [Oregon] 7th 8th X"
- Line 10: "Halsey [Oregon] [Sept] 9 to X [10th?] X"
- Line 11: "Harrisburg [Oregon] [Sept] 11th"
- Line 12: "Junction City [Oregon] [Sept] 12th"
- Line 13: "Eugene [Oregon] [Sept] 13th to 14"
- Line 14: "Salem [Oregon] [Sept] 15 + 16"
As for the city and circus citations on other pages of the notebook, probably there's some correlation, but what they are remains to be teased out, at least in my thinking. It's all about finding coherence among data on the notebook pages.
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| Mapped route of the circus |
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Art writes,
Attached is a map on which the route of the circus is mapped (placement of some sites is estimated). If Jeff did follow the circus, probably transportation made it easy to do so—trains seem likely.
Art's conclusion,
So, many questions remain, not about what he wrote, but what he wrote means in terms of what he did.
STAR NOTEBOOK
April 24, 2017
Part #1
Part #2
Part #3
Part #4
Part #5
Part #6
Part #7
Part #8
Part #9
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)
"The only sure thing about luck is that it will change."
—Wilson Mizner
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Thank you for leaving your comment and/or question on my blog. I always read, and will answer all questions asap. Please know that they are greatly appreciated. -Jeff Smith