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

Did Soapy Smith operate in Sacramento, California in 1887-88?

The soap trick man
Sacramento Daily Union
September 22, 1887

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as Soapy Smith operating at Sacramento, California in 1887-88?

(quick answer: Maybe.)

      On April 23, 2023 I published a story on the possibility that Soapy Smith operated his prize package soap racket in Sacramento, California, in mid-July 1885. My conclusion is that “The timing, between June 23 and August 1, 1885, is right, thus Soapy may have operated in Sacramento, California, on July 14, 1885.”
     Since posting that story I have found two more newspaper clippings in which a prize package soap racket operator worked the streets of Sacramento in late September 1887 and mid–February 1888. The following is from the Sacramento Daily Union, September 22, 1887.

The soap trick man—the sharper who gulls the verdant by offering for sale little packages of soap, into which he ostensibly puts a $5 greenback, the purchaser finding to his disappointment that it was only a pretense—has commenced business on the streets. His scheme is little if any better than the shell game for the public.

This newspaper account is dated just over two years after the initial prize package soap man in Sacramento, July 15, 1885. All I have at this time is circumstantial evidence that I supply from Soapy’s timeline, via my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel and my extensive files. We need to keep in mind that it is possible that any one of the three, or even all of them, are different individual bunko men. One, two, or all three may be Soapy. Also possible is that none of them is Soapy Smith. 

     In 1887 Soapy was an established criminal and political power in Denver, Colorado. He was married and had a child on the way. Though well established, Soapy still needed to leave Denver periodically, for short periods of time, sometimes longer, depending on the severity of his crimes, until the memory of his crimes were swept under a rug.

     I investigated the known traveling plans and locations of Soapy, and whether he was in Denver previous to and post September 22, 1887, to see if a trip to Sacramento was possible. Following is what I uncovered.

• On January 1, 1887, the Rocky Mountain News reported that Soapy had made a trip to St. Louis to see his wife when she was close to giving birth. Though eight months previous to the soap man in Sacramento, this is the first of many trips Soapy made going east of Denver. A February 13, 1887, letter to Jeff shows he had been in St. Louis with his wife and baby son during Christmas. A month after their son Jefferson was born, he wrote to his wife Mary on March 19, 1887, Mary and the baby were still at her mother’s in St. Louis, and trips were still being made to see them.
• In July 1887 the Rocky Mountain News somehow got hold of Soapy's travel itinerary and published it.

Soapy Smith, one of the local celebrities of Denver and one of the most pushing business men in the city, left last Tuesday evening in the rain for a month’s sojourn in the East. While absent he will give away small samples of Denver’s best soap and new crisp fifty dollar bills among his friends at Saratoga, Long Branch, Coney Island, Brighton Beach and other health and pleasure resorts. We are sorry to lose “Soapy” from among us, but will console ourselves by allowing the “Hifen” to unload its surplus amount of “soft soap” on the susceptible candidates. With Smith out of the way, the “Hifen” has no rivals in the state.

      How did the News obtain Soapy's itinerary? Possibly a reporter had cultivated a source within the soap gang. Equally possible, though, is that Soapy or a confederate purposely led a reporter to believe that Soapy was headed east when actually he went in another direction. No evidence shows he went east at this time. He may have gone as far east as St. Louis to see his family or in the opposite direction altogether. Soapy could not afford to have his actions and his comings and goings generally known because whether true or untrue, his reputation linked him to any criminal event within his general vicinity. Another concern for Soapy was that publication of his travel plans would not only alert the law but also any rivaling bunco operations. Either entity, or both, could spell trouble. So he learned to be secretive or to misdirect the newspapers and his enemies when he planned on traveling.

• Soapy acted as timekeeper in a boxing match on November 18, 1887, eighteen miles from Denver.

     So, we see that Soapy left Denver in July, about two months before a trip to Sacramento would be made. We also know that about two months after the Sacramento trip, Soapy was "eighteen miles from Denver."

     Technically, the timing is right for Soapy to possibly have gone to Sacramento.  

 

Ordered the police to stop the soap trick man
Sacramento Daily Union
February 14, 1888

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     Two years, seven months after the first recorded soap scammer in Sacramento, California, and almost five months after the last incident, the mayor of Sacramento orders the city police to "put a stop" to a "soap swindler." The Sacramento Daily Union, February 14, 1888 published the blurb.

Mayor Gregory yesterday ordered the police to put a stop to the soap swindler’s operations on K street. Why does the Mayor make fish of one and fowl of another? Why does he not give the same orders regarding the Chinese lotteries and the faro banks?

Is it Soapy Smith or another soap sell operator? Again, I am working with circumstantial evidence from Soapy's timeline via my book and files. In 1888 Soapy's criminal and political empire in Denver, Colorado, is larger and more powerful than it was five months previous. In 1888 he opens his first saloon enterprise, the Tivoli Club. His wife and child are back at home in Denver, in their new home. Did Soapy travel back to Sacramento? Once again, I investigated the known traveling plans and locations of Soapy, and whether he was in Denver previous to, and post February 14, 1888, to see if a trip to Sacramento was feasible.

• From January through May 1888, Denver citizens read little of Soapy Smith in the Denver newspapers. There seems to have been a reform movement going on within the city, demanding police action.
  
• On January 26, 1888, the Rocky Mountain News reported Soapy's role of timekeeper during a boxing match in Boulder County, Colorado. During the match one of the boxers was knocked down, and possibly when Soapy completed the ten count mark before the downed fighter again arose, the referee either did not hear Soapy's ten count indicating the fight was over or he chose to ignore it and let the fight continue. Accusations of foul play were made but with no apparent repercussions.
• On January 31, 1888, Police Chief Henry C. Brady had his officers sweep the streets of confidence men and tinhorn gamblers. Fourteen men were arrested, all within proximity of Larimer and Sixteenth streets. Seventeenth Street, where Jeff was based, was seemingly ignored. Soapy was likely out of the city, having been in Boulder for the boxing match there. Likely Soapy operated his prize package soap racket in surrounding towns, but likely not Boulder itself. Could be that this is when he headed to Sacramento. 
• At some date after February 12, 1888, when the building's owner received permission from the city of Denver to open a saloon, Soapy's Tivoli Club saloon and gambling house opened its doors. The earliest mention of the Tivoli Club is published in the Rocky Mountain News on November 22, 1888, due to an anti-gambling raid by the city police. If Soapy went to Sacramento, then it is probable that the Tivoli opened well after February 12th.
• On July 8, 1888, Soapy was definitely back in Denver when he swindled two men who reacted with their fists. “A ‘soap’ man and two grangers [farmers] got into trouble yesterday morning, in which the grangers, as usual, got the worst of it.”

I was surprised when the first Sacramento date, July 14, 1885, fit into Soapy's timeline making it possible that it was Soapy operating the prize package soap racket there. However, I did not expect all three Sacramento dates to fit into Soapy's timeline. However, there is no provenance yet, so it could simply be a good coincidence. All three will go into my files as "possibles."

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

April 3, 2023

 

"You can't cheat an honest man--Never give sucker an even break--and never smartin' up a chump!"

—W. C. Fields

Was Soapy Smith in Sacramento, California in 1885?

The "soap man"
Sacramento Daily Union
July 15, 1885

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 

as Soapy Smith in Sacramento, California in 1885?

The quick answer: Very possible.

 

 

 

      I came across the mention of a "soap man" in the Sacramento Daily Union,
July 15, 1885.

The gambling games following the circus found Sacramento a poor place to operate in yesterday, as the Chief of Police shut down upon them all in short order. In fact none of the schemes, including those of the “soap man” and the “greenback man,” were allowed to commence. Even the individual who sold articles, promising to give a prize with each, was advised to close his operations.

     My first thought is "could this be Jefferson Randolph Smith, alias 'Soapy?'" Though on the rare side, there were other prize package soap racket men operating in the West, so my first task is to find any circumstantial evidence indicating that it could be Soapy. One way to accomplish this is to search my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel and my files to see where Soapy was at during the period of the newspaper facts, which in this case is previous and post July 15, 1885. Usually I can determine, on a possibility scale, whether it could be Soapy Smith or not. What I gather goes into my files for possible future discovery that may alter the potential feasibility of the "soap man" being Jefferson "Soapy" Smith.

     The following information comes from my book and files.
     Soapy's name was absent from the Denver newspapers for much of 1884 and for the first five months of 1885. He seems to have kept an extremely low profile as he established himself in the city. During this period, he might still have been traveling, and one trip might have led to a stay of many months. Eight years later, in 1893, the Rocky Mountain News published Soapy's own words that he had gone to operate at the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans, which ran from December 16, 1884, to June 2, 1885.
     The absence of Soapy's name from the newspapers ended in May 1885 when J. Brockman, a Denver resident, had Soapy arrested for swindling him. Soapy did not want to return the victim’s money. The Rocky Mountain News reported the incident.
     The arresting officer, Henry W. Barr, did not have enough evidence to prove that Soapy had actually swindled Brockman, so he arrested Soapy for being in violation of the city lottery ordinance and had him held in jail pending receipt of $500 bond. The following day John P. Kinneavy, saloon entrepreneur and Soapy's friend, posted bail. At the trial on the lottery charge, attorney Judge Miller represented Soapy and was able to get him off with a fine.

Smith claims that he does not pretend that everyone can be lucky and was very indignant when Judge Barnum fined him $25.00. He gave notice that he would appeal the case.

No appeal of the case is recorded. On the day of the trial, the city council passed an ordinance against schemes like the soap racket, including 

any person who shall be engaged in any fraudulent scheme, device or trick upon the streets, through fares or public places or elsewhere in the city, or who by the aid, use or manipulation of any article or articles, thing or things what so ever in packages, boxes or otherwise arranged, whereby persons are induced, or sought to be induced, to purchase any such packages, articles or thing with a view to obtaining money, jewelry, or other property therein contained or therein connected in any manner. And it shall constitute no defense.

The ordinance seemed designed to stop Soapy in particular and all bunco men in general. Soapy was able to continue his street business for a solid month before the city council adopted a resolution on June 23, 1885, to rescind his peddler’s license. Soapy then left Denver for an extended cooling off period. For forty-two days, from June 23 to August 1, 1885, there is no sign of him. Then his name appeared in an August 2, 1885, news account of a boxing match in Rawlins, Wyoming. Soapy was the timekeeper. 

     The timing, between June 23 and August 1, 1885, is right, thus, the conclusion is that Soapy Smith may very well have been operating in Sacramento, California, on July 14, 1885.

 

ADDENDUM

 

There are two more dates in which Soapy Smith could have operated in Sacramento, California. You will find them both HERE.

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

"Son, one of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider."

—Damon Runyon

Possible victim of the Soapy Smith gang, Denver, 1884.

Roped-in
Omaha Daily Bee
June 25, 1884

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OSSIBLE VICTIM OF THE JEFFERSON R. SMITH GANG.

 

 

Omaha Daily Bee
June 25, 1884

COLORADO.

Col. Fletcher, a tourist from Boston, was roped-in by the bunko men of Denver and relieved of $1,000.

The story of Soapy Smith can be had in the book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.

NOTES:

1. $1,000.00 in 1884 is the equivalent of $33,472.95 in 2023. 
2. According to the Rocky Mountain News there were at least two, possibly three bunko gangs operating in Denver at this time. For certain "Doc" Charles Baggs and Jeff R. Smith were operating in Denver at this time. 
3. Jeff R. Smith was not known as "Soapy" Smith until May 1885, neither was the gang known as the soap gang.
   

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"In many cases the bunko sharp is compelled to return a portion of the money to avoid such trouble, and sometimes comes to grief at the hands of the law. In such cases the matter is compromised with the man, his money is returned and he is induced to leave, so that when the case comes up for trial the sharp escapes for lack of prosecution."

—Evening Post (San Francisco)
May 6, 1876

Did Soapy Smith operate in Benson, Arizona in 1885?

Soapy Smith in Benson?
Daily Tombstone
September 2, 1885

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id Soapy Smith operate in Benson, Arizona in 1885?

 

 

 

Daily Tombstone
September 2, 1885

Went Broke.

Tim and Brigham, two well known Johns, went to Benson Tuesday to take in the circus and among other sights they saw there was a man selling soap, wrapped around which was greenbacks of various denominations, among others, a $50 note. Our two knights of the lines watched the soap vendor unwrap the bill and show it, and then placed it in the box again for over half an hour, and both had their eyes upon what they thought to be the package containing the $50 bill. They then pooled their issue and forfeited a dollar for a package, picking out the right one, as they supposed. After they had got the package they walked up the track for a distance of half a mile, so that nobody would know of their good fortune, and opened the package, when lo, there was nothing there but a piece of soap worth possibly a quarter of a cent. This so enraged our two friends that they returned and kept buying soap until they went broke, and as a consequence, we learn that the Bisbee stage will only run every other day hereafter.

 

     The timing is right, but without the identification of the man selling prize package soap in Benson it remains a question to answer. It is known that Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith operated in numerous locations in Arizona between 1882-1883, but what about September 1885? Soapy was not the only prize package soap man working the West.

     It is known that in 1885 Soapy was rising as a criminal and political force in Denver, Colorado. Soapy's name was absent from the Denver newspapers for much of 1884 and for the first five months of 1885. He seems to have kept an extremely low profile as he established himself in the city. During this period, he might still have been traveling. The absence of Soapy's name from the newspapers ended in May 1885 when J. Brockman, a Denver resident, had Soapy arrested for swindling him. Soapy was able to continue his street business for a solid month before the city council adopted a resolution on June 23, 1885, to rescind his peddler’s license.
     Thus Soapy left Denver for an extended cooling off period. For forty-two days, from June 23 to August 1, 1885, there is no sign of him. Then his name appeared in an August 2, 1885, news account of a boxing match in Rawlins, Wyoming. Soapy was the timekeeper.
     Soapy's name does not appear in Denver newspapers again until October 3, 1885, when he and another bunco man named Mike Rainey were arrested for assaulting John Koch, a probable victim. Koch failed to identify his attackers as Jeff and Rainey, so they were discharged. This means that the time window (August 2 - October 3, 1885) opens the possibility that the soap man in Benson may very well have been Soapy. 

     Read the entire story of Soapy Smith in, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.


 

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

  

"It can be argued that man's instinct to gamble is the only reason he is still not a monkey up in the trees."

—Mario Puzo, Inside Las Vegas

Did Soapy Smith go to Virginia City in 1885?

The Soap Selling Fakir
Lyon County Times
Nevada
July 4, 1885

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 id "Soapy" Smith go to Virginia City in 1885?

 

 

 

 

 

In the Lyon County Times, July 4, 1885, there is a mention of a "soap selling fakir."

      The soap selling fakir who offered such splendid inducements to Carsonites and a few Daytonites on circus day, is said to have cleared up about $800 in Virginia City. Where is the fool killer?

      The following day, July 5, 1885, the Weekly Elko Independent (Nevada), quotes the Virginia Chronicle (Virginia City, Nevada)

The Soap Selling Fakir
Weekly Elko Independent
Nevada
July 5, 1885

(Click image to enlarge)

The Soap Selling Fakir.

     The fakir who offered such splendid inducements to our citizens to acquire sudden wealth by purchasing a cake of his soap and receiving an envelope alleged to contain a $100 bank note in return, is said to have cleaned up $800 last Monday. Several prominent citizens contributed materially toward swelling the hawker’s receipts to such a handsome sum. Among those who invest most liberally, was a learned professor, a prominent hardware merchant, a druggist and a well-known carpenter. The men are not particularly anxious to achieve notoriety as speculators in a scheme where they have since learned that “the more you put down the less you take up,” and in contrast with which three-card monte and ten dice games are sure things to bet on.—Virginia Chronicle.

     Is this Soapy Smith in Nevada in 1885? There are several mentions of the prize package soap sell racket being operated in Nevada, specifically in Virginia City, and the timing was indeed right for the prize package operator to be none other than Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith.

     In 1884-85 Soapy was working to create an empire in Denver, Colorado, and is known to have traveled about the Western states and territories during this period.
     In May 1885 Soapy had inadvertently sold his prize soap to a local resident in Denver. Soapy had a rule of not involving the local Denver citizens in his scams, and this was the first time, in print, that he swindled a Denverite. This was also the first time the alias of “Soapy Smith" was used in print. It placed a "target" on Soapy's back. The city of Denver had sold Soapy the business license, and to protect its reputations, the city quickly passed an ordinance forbidding 'cash prize schemes,' pointed directly at Soapy's prize soap sales.
     Nine days later, Soapy was again in the news. A fight broke out between a victim of the soap sell and one of Soapy's men at the corner of Arapaho and Sixteenth Streets. On June 23, 1885, the city decided to rescind his peddler’s license. Soapy left Denver for an extended cooling off period, fully intending to return. 

     During the periods when Soapy was not in Denver, he toured around the country operating the soap sell racket. Finding articles of prize package soap operations, let alone any provenance that the soap "fakirs" listed in the newspapers were "Soapy" Smith, is difficult as very rarely did the con men stay around long enough to be arrested and/or interviewed.  
     For forty-two days, from June 23 to August 1, 1885, there are no sign of Soapy in Denver or the newspapers. Ten days after leaving Denver, on July 4, 1885, the first newspaper report of the “soap fakir” in Virginia City appears.

     Newspaper accounts regarding soap racket operators and Soapy Smith stopped being published. Soapy's name does appears again on August 2, 1885. He is in Rawlins, Wyoming, where he is the timekeeper during boxing match being fought there. Manager of one of the boxers is Soapy's personal friend, famed lawman and gambler Bat Masterson.
     Soapy returns to Denver and in August 1889 is held by the grand jury to answer for assault with intent to kill.

He was present yesterday in the criminal division of the district court and gave a bond of $1,000, John Kinneavy becoming his bondsman.

     In that four years between 1885-1889, there are no other reports of "soap fakirs" in Virginia City or Nevada. Soapy leaves Denver on August 26, and in his September 2, 1889, letter to Mary, he wrote that he was going to Spokane Falls. No records of his activities there nor anywhere during his absence have yet been found, perhaps until now.
     After four years of  no reported "prize soap swindles," the Carson Daily Appeal for October 9, 1889, publishes the following simple message.

The Soap Selling Fakir
Carson Daily Appeal
Nevada
October 9, 1889

“Look out for the swindling soap games.”

     Eight days later, on October 17, 1889, after a fifty-day absence, Soapy returns to Denver. Note the timing coincidences in this story from 1885 to 1889. Though it can certainly be a coincidence, it can also be addressed as circumstantial evidence that Soapy Smith paid a visit to Virginia City in 1885.

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"If he knows the exact position of only one of the 52 cards, he will eventually win all the money in sight."

—John Scarne

Was Soapy Smith in Phoenix, Arizona in May 1882?

No Good Place for Sharpers.
Los Angeles Daily Herald
May 4, 1882

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 

as Soapy Smith in Phoenix, Arizona in May 1882?

 

 

 

 

The Los Angeles Daily Herald, May 4, 1882, reports the following.

No Good Place for Sharpers.

PHOENIX, A. T., May 3.—Three bunko sharps and top-and-bottom men were arrested here this morning. The officers are after another. The citizens are determined that, if not convicted, they must leave town, or cottonwood trees will bear the same fruit as in 1879.

      Could confidence man “Soapy” Smith have been in Phoenix in May 1882? There is no hard provenance yet, but the timing seems open to the possibility.
     At the time I published Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, Soapy's whereabouts between 1881 and 1882 were uncertain. Since then a lot of new information has surfaced. Family collections contain few personal letters or newspaper clippings to show his activities. To survive, however, is a letter of reference that may explain his whereabouts, and his rapid movement between towns and states. Dated May 12, 1882, from the South Pueblo, Colorado, office of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, it reads,

To whom it may concern

The barer Mr. Jeff. R. Smith has been in the employ of this company for the last fourteen months in the capacity of train baggage master. During that time he has served us it has been to the satisfaction of all concerned. He leaves our employ in good standing.

W. H. Bancroff

The letter bears the superintendent’s personal stamp. Two possibilities are that Soapy actually worked for the Denver and Rio Grande and had been on the job, or that the letter is a forgery, perhaps so that Jeff might move about by train, unmolested by railroad security. Either way, what came to be Soapy's life-long focus makes probable that he was swindling train passengers.
     In the summer of 1882, Soapy surfaced in Salt Lake City. He purchased a merchant’s license to operate on the sidewalk at South Temple, between East Temple 1st and East streets for the term of three months, starting June 11, 1882. The fee was $2.75. Though the license was good until September, he did not stay the full term. During this period, Soapy seems to have been a “hit and run” nomad, staying in each location long enough to swindle victims, and then leaving before facing prosecution.
     Less than two months later he was in Portland, Oregon, where he purchased a vendor license dated August 2, 1882. An edition of Portland’s Daily Standard of the same date exposes the infamous prize package soap sell for the first time.
     On January 25, 1883, Soapy acquired a license to “purchase goods” in Gonzales, Texas. Then on May 26, he paid $2.50 for the privilege of selling soap in Nebraska City, Nebraska. Just 4 days later, he bought a license to sell in Washington City, Iowa, some 300 miles away. At some point in 1883 Soapy made his way to Tombstone, Arizona. A small notebook in his handwriting notes money made while there. On December 26, 1883, he paid $4 for a vendor’s license in Phoenix, Arizona. Six days later, on New Year’s Day, he was arrested in San Francisco for operating the “soap racket.” This tells us that Soapy was constantly on the move between towns across the West. 

     Was Soapy in Phoenix, Arizona, in May 1882? It's a possibility. The research continues.

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

Phoenix, Arizona

Oct 05, 2009
Dec 26, 2015
Dec 22, 2019
 

Phoenix, Arizona: pages 40-41.

"Card sharping has been reduced to a science. It is no longer a haphazard affair, involving merely primitive manipulations, but it has developed into a profession in which there is as much to learn as in most occupations."

—John Maskelyne, 1894

New photograph of "Soapy" Smith?

'SOAPY' SMITH AND TWO COLLEAGUES
Object ID 2017.6.350
Courtesy of Salvation Army Museum of the West

(Click image to enlarge)

New photograph of "Soapy" Smith?
NOT EVEN CLOSE.

 

     A.B. and W., photograph, said to be of Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith, and two colleagues. Soapy is in the middle, marked with an "X." The photo was taken in Alaska, exact location unknown.

     Soapy grew his beard in 1889 after the shootout at the Pocatello, Idaho) train depot. He remained bearded for the remainder of his life. 

 

SOURCE:  

• Salvation Army Museum of the West. 
• Link to the photograph.
  

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

  

"Cards are war, in disguise of a sport."

—Charles Lamb

"Shavy" [Shavie] Smith: Did "Soapy" Smith have an earlier alias?

Denver Republican
October 16, 1883

(Click image to enlarge)

 

NOTE: There has been additional research finds added. You will find them at the bottom of the article in dark red.

 

id the Denver Republican give conman Jefferson Randolph Smith his first Alias?

 

On October 16, 1883 the Denver Republican posted a sentence in the Police Court section of their newspaper that read, "Shavy Smith was fined $10 and costs for raising a disturbance." Could young Jefferson been running his prize package soap sell racket and "raised a disturbance?" It would certainly not be the first time. The name may have come from a newspaper reporter who knew that the arrestee was named "Smith," but did not know the first name. It would not be the first time that individuals placed invented alias' in front of "Smith," including "Sopolio" and "Soapy." Could the reporter added "Shavy" to Smith?

     In researching the name "Shavy" I found a site that stated that between 1880-2019 there have been 69 reports of female babies being christened "Shavy." With no apparent data or provenance, that's supposedly 69 named "Shavy" in 139 years. We cannot ignore the fact that the very few "Shavy's" in 1883 caused a criminal disturbance. What are those odds?

[following is the first addendum containing information from Art Petersen, Professor of English, author, publisher and historian]

    
     "Shavy" was a new and interesting moniker to me, so I looked it up in DARE (Dictionary of American Regional English) and the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) but found no entry. That seemed strange as these dictionaries are huge, scholarly collections of words and their derivatives. So on speculation I looked in my grandmother's 1908 Colliers dictionary and found "SHAVIE n. a trick or prank. Scotch." Checking "shavie" in DARE, I found nothing but did find it in the OED and in Merriam-Webster online. The term is definitely an archaism. I've heard of people being "clipped" as well as "shaved" but not "shavied."
     Without explanation or derivation, dictionary synonyms and etymologies showed words like "caper, knavery, monkeyshine(s), roguery, trick, swindle, crook."
     I have now only a subscription to Newspaper.com, and a check there showed the word used in the 1880s and 1890s as names for horses, crooks, but also just a plain nickname--context revealed little, but I didn't spend much time with these articles as the citations also showed confusion with Shaw (the name), shaved, and shaving.
     But the newspaper writer seems probably apt in naming Soapy as Shavy Smith, as in con game trickster Smith. Interesting as an early nickname for Jefferson before being christened with the more memorable Soapy.

 

[following is the second addendum containing information from Linda Gay Mathis,  genealogist and historian]

 

Sunday's Slugging
Denver Tribune
July 18, 1883
Courtesy of Linda Gay Mathis

 (Click image to enlarge)

Below is the article's content.

SUNDAY’S SLUGGING

An Amateur Prize Fight at the Fair Grounds Winds Up In a Bloody Row.

      There was an amateur prize fight of a very bloody nature at the Fair grounds Sunday night. The particulars have been kept quiet by the parties engaged for fear of the police. Charles Garderner and Jack Reddy are rival cooks of rival hotels, and because of their respective capabilities in the culinary art they have become personal rivals. Both claim to be men of muscular abilities, and this has some what stimulated the antagonism. Though they were not avowed enemies, they had a hostile meeting one day last week and agreed to settle all of their differences in the ring by moonlight on Sunday night.
     The matter was kept exceedingly quiet, and there were only three witnesses, the seconds to the combatants and the hackman who drove them to the place. “Shavy” Smith was second to Gardner, and Gilbert Balls was second to Reddy. A ring was improvised by drawing a circle on the ground.
     In the first round Gardener struck Reddy a terrible blow. Reddy ran in and clinched, and, in doing so, violated all the aggreements that had been made by setting his teeth on Gardener’s thumb, biting him severely. Then, releasing his hold, he set his teeth in Gardener’s cheek, holding him with the grip of a bulldog.
     Then “Shavy” Smith, as Gardener’s second, stepped up and demanded that Reddy should let go, and kicked him. Then Balls, the second to Reddy, made an assault on Smith, when the latter turned, threw Balls upon the ground and gave him a terrible kick over the eyes, cutting a bloody gash, which required seven stitches by a surgeon to close.
     Then a general rough and tumble fight ensued between principles and seconds, and the struggle continued till all parties were willing to quit. They returned to town, each by his own route, and all of them a bloody and badly mutilated set.

____________________________

The original newspaper story from the Denver Republican for Shavy Smith was dated October 16, 1883, three months later the Denver Tribune article dated July 18, 1883 is published. Are they both writing about the same incident, or are they discussing different affairs? Could the "disturbance" case have taken three months to go before a judge? If so, was this intentional?

There are a number of clues that I find too much of a coincidence for "Shavy" not to be Soapy Smith. They are as follows.

• "Shavy" Smith is working in an official capacity within a boxing ring. On numerous occasions throughout his life, Soapy Smith worked as a time-keeper, a referee, etc. within a boxing ring.

• The use of "Shavy" in the Denver Republican does not indicate the sex of the individual causing the "disturbance." A portion of the upper first half of this blog post deals with the name, and whether it is a male or female. The primary difference in the Denver Tribune article is that "Shavy" Smith is male.

• In the Denver Republican "Shavy" is not encased with quote marks giving the impression that it is a forename (first name). In the Denver Tribune article quote marks surround "Shavy," indicating that it is not a forename, but rather an alias, like "Soapy" Smith.

• “Shavy’s” quick and violent reaction at the start of the free-for-all fight in the Denver Tribune article aligns with “Soapy’s” quick-to-violence history, a little too much to be mere coincidence.

• Perhaps more of a circumstantial clue, than a solid one, is the name of "Charles Gardener," of whom Soapy was his "second" in the boxing match. Soapy’s sister, Emma Lu "Emmie" Smith, married Robert Gardner, so I can't help but wonder if the newspaper misspelled the name, printing "Gardener" instead?

With this new information I’m going to officially state that I believe that “Shavy” Smith is “Soapy” Smith.

SOURCES:

Popular Baby Names

Merriam-Webster online

Oxford English Dictionary

Colliers dictionary, 1908
Art Petersen
Linda Gay Mathis

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

"Horse sense is a good judgment which keeps horses from betting on people."

—W.C. Fields