Soapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1882: Part #14 - page 14

Soapy STAR notebook
Page 14 - Original copy
1882
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

OAPY SMITH IN CALIFORNIA

♫ California's the place you outta to be

So he loaded up his grip and moved to Grass Valley ♪

This is page 14, dated 1882, 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. Page 14 is a continuation from page 11, 12 and 13, concluding on page 14, which is what we are visiting today.

     Note that these notebook pages have never been published before! The pages continue to be not only of revealing interest but also of rewarding surprise! It initially seemed that pages 11 through 13 were composed in San Francisco. But as this next page directly continues from page 13, and if this page is the last of the list of places, then probably the list was composed later than in San Francisco. I guess it hardly matters, though, because what's of most interest is where and when the visits occurred. The picture that the pages draw is of young 22 year-old Jefferson pursuing "soap sales" over a very wide spread of territory and in a very tenacious, even driven, way. From the end of July until the first week of November, Jeff was on a perpetual motion swindle campaign.
     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.

     Rather than plans to go somewhere, this page is an accounting of where Soapy has already gone. Page 13 covered his travels through Oregon, Washington Territory, and California in 1882. This page (#14) covers his journey and work in California. Previous pages contained to do lists, work notes, an itinerary. This page engages in journaling—the recording of past events, perhaps for the purpose of revisiting them, or memorializing them for oneself, like a diary entry. The interesting thing is that, although the writing records the communication of twenty-one-year-old Soapy Smith with himself, the writing also communicates with us about him 142 years later (and potentially far beyond today). 

     Below are my attempts to attempts to make the writing easier to see and decipher.

Soapy STAR notebook
Page 14 - enhanced copy
1882
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

Soapy STAR notebook
Page 14 - negative copy
1882
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

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.

Soapy STAR notebook
Page 14 - deciphered copy
1882
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

Page 14

• Line 1: "19, 20, 21st at"
• Line 2: "Santa Cruz [California] + [and]"
• Line 3: "Watsonville [California] 23 + [and] 24"
• Line 4: "at Hollister [California] 25th"
• Line 5: "Gilroy [California] 26 to 30th in + [and] 24"
• Line 6: "Frisco [San Francisco] and Vallejo [California]"
• Line 7: "Back to Gilroy [California] to"
• Line 8: "Roses [short for Roseville] on 31st"

What looks like "Roses" I am certain is short for "Roseville." It was a major railroad junction (just called "Junction" early on) for the Central Pacific Railroad. It is said to have been named for the roses that grew in abundance in the area. I determined the cite had to be Roseville by consulting an 1882 railroad map from the Library of Congress. I followed possible routes from Gilroy to Grass Valley and Nevada City, and Roseville is the closest possible name to what Jeff jotted in the notebook. Here is how it's shown on the map, "Rose V."

"Rose V"
1882 railroad map
Courtesy Library of Congress

The earliest naming of Roseville in print was in the 1860s, but how was it referred to by those who lived there or passed through? Maybe as "Roses." It must have been a good locale because Soapy spent 2½ or 3 days there. Coincidentally, this finding was quite a surprise to Art Petersen who has aided me in deciphering Soapy's handwriting, as he lived in Roseville for 8 years, some of them near the noisy railroad yards.

• Line 9: "till [until] 2nd from there"
• Line 10: "to Grass Valley [California]"
• Line 11: "+ [and] Nevada [short for Nevada City]"

This is "Nevada" for "Nevada City," incorporated in 1851. "City" was added in 1864 to distinguish it from the newly-admitted adjoining state to the east. Grass Valley and Nevada City, both 1849 gold rush towns, had rich mines in proximity, some producing ore until 1900. Back then, trains ran to them when the locations had economic vitality.

• Line 12: "Colfax [and] Red Bluff [California]"
• Line 13: "Chico [and] Marysville [California]"
• Line 14: "Sacramento [California], and"
• Line 15: "From there to"
• Line 16: "Oakland [California] Nov. 6th"
• Line 17: "From Oakland [California]"
• Line 18: "to Santa Rosa [California]"
• Line 19: "86.86."

The numbers on line 19 suggests that money is being indicated. Could that be a tally of "soap sales" receipts from Santa Rosa? Or could it be a tally of the cost of train fare to all the California locations he visited on the Central Pacific Railroad?

Map of Soapy's California route
1882 Central Pacific railroad route

     Since I had crawled through the 1882 railroad map I was drawn to tracing the locations on a map, which is attached. Of course, the arrows are as the "crow flies." The actual routes, as the 1882 map shows, were curving (though some straight) and involved train changes at places like Colfax and Sacramento (and probably some others) and a ferry ride to Vallejo from San Francisco.

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

STAR NOTEBOOK
April 24, 2017
Part #1
Part #2
Part #3
Part #4
Part #5 
Part #6
Part #7
Part #8
Part #9 
Part #10
Part #11
Part #12
Part #13
Part #15
Part #16

Part #17 
Part #18
Part #19

Part #20
Part #21
Part #22-23

Part #24

"Your best chance to get a Royal Flush
in a casino is in the bathroom."

—V.P. Pappy

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

The soap trick man
Sacramento Daily Union
September 22, 1887

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 

 

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

(Click image to enlarge)

     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