Showing posts with label South Dakota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Dakota. Show all posts

February 27, 2025

Soapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1883: Part #17 - page 17

Soapy Smith STAR Notebook
Page 17 - Original copy
1883
Courtesy of Geri Murphy
(Click image to enlarge)




oapy Smith in San Francisco, Ohio, South Dakota, Kentucky.
Cheap John scam, Knight's Conclave, Cotton Exposition and horse races.

     This is page 17, dated July-August 1883, 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.
     These notebook pages have never been published before! They continue to be of revealing interest. 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.
     The notebook(s) are in Soapy's handwriting, and sometimes 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, an enhanced copy, and a negative copy of each page. Also included will be 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.
     It seems Soapy is not entrenched in Denver yet, still operating as a nomad moving from town to town.
     In one noticeable respect, page 17 is different from the other pages seen so far. In contrast, page 17 is uncommonly clear. The lead of the pencil must have been sharp and the notepad on a hard surface for the letters and words to be so dark and impressed so legibly. Other pages often seem written on with a dull pencil, and the words seem a bit shaken and jagged, as if made with the notebook in hand, perhaps while aboard the swaying car of a moving train or stagecoach. Alcohol may also play a part in the bad handwriting seen thus far.
     Page 17 continues listing places to consider visiting, that is, to list options to consider. The places are far flung (e.g., Louisville, KY; New London, OH; San Francisco, CA) and getting from place to place in 1883 would take days. Because of the distances, rather than an itinerary, they seem more suited to be individual options from which to choose. covers his possible journey to San Francisco, Ohio, South Dakota and Kentucky, operating the cheap John swindle while attending a Knight's Conclave, the Cotton Exposition and horse races. Although the communication of twenty-one-year-old Soapy Smith is 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 Smith STAR Notebook
Page 17 - Enhanced copy
1883
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

Soapy Smith STAR Notebook
Page 17 - Negative copy
1883
Courtesy of Geri Murphy
(Click image to enlarge)



Soapy Smith STAR Notebook
Page 17 - Deciphered copy
1883
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)


Page 17
  • Line 1: "Goods to Handle"
  • Line 2: "Tin ware for California" 
  • Line 3: "Crockery for every"
  • Line 4: "place New London [Ohio]"
  • Line 5: "Ohio."
  • Line 6: "'Occurrences'"
  • Line 7: "Knights Conclave"
  • Line 8: "San Francisco Aug."
  • Line 9: "Cotton Exposition"
  • Line 10: "Louisville [Kentucky] Aug."
  • Line 11: "Races at Mitchell"
  • Line 12: "Dakota [South Dakota] July 3, and 4."
  • Line 13: "Over" [continues on page 18]

  • Lines 1-4, we see that Soapy was planning to operate his swindles in California (San Francisco?), interestingly enough, it appears that Soapy was preparing to run a "cheap John" operation. I knew he started using the cheap John in Round Rock, Texas, likely out of the back of a wagon, but I always figured that once he got into the short cons (shell and pea con, three-card monte and the soap sell) he gave up the cheap John con. Was he still doing it in 1883? I thought that perhaps this might be an older dated page (1878-1881).
The cheap John swindle is the forerunner of today's Jam auction. Below is the definition of "cheap John" from my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.
A cheap John operation is the predecessor of the jam auction, which Jeff would later operate in Denver. An operator sells, usually under high pressure, practically worthless merchandise at a fraction of its value in order to excite and confuse the audience. Sometimes the items are said to be valuable manufacturers’ promotional items. First, small, practically worthless items are given away to everyone, then unexpectedly slightly more valuable items are sold to bidders for almost nothing. The procedure is conducted in a way that confuses buyers about whether they are putting up money "as a good faith gesture" that they will get back or whether they are tendering payment. When buyers are thoroughly confused, the cheap John adds the final wrinkle: the sale of almost worthless (but apparently valuable) merchandise for what seem like outrageous "bargain" prices. 
A modern day Jam Auction
Courtesy of The Real Hustle
(Click image to enlarge)

The cheap John may also be an option for Soapy. It would be natural to continue listing that kind of selling as an option. But sales of that kind surely couldn't match what Soapy found he could earn in a day or an afternoon or an hour auctioning off money-wrapped soap. Additionally, it's hard to imagine Soapy lugging around suitcases of tin ware and crockery all across the West, as opposed to an easily portable box of little cuts of soap, a small commodity for which he could build up demand in minutes. Known is that Soapy continued to sell cheap John goods, but probably not when he was on the road. Later when operating solely in a city, an auction house would be a fitting location for sales of that kind, handled for Soapy by operators, and perhaps Soapy himself on occasion.

  • Lines 4-5, show a plan to operate in New London, Ohio.

  • Lines 6, are under the heading of "Occurrences," which are more plans to visit and operate.
  • Lines 7-8, at the Knights [Triennial] Conclave in San Francisco, Cal., August 20–25, 1883. It was the first Triennial Conclave held west of St. Louis.

Grand parade of the Knights Templar
Triennial Conclave
San Francisco, Cal.
August 20, 1883
(Click image to enlarge)

  • Lines 9-10, Soapy plans to operate at The Cotton Exposition, formally called The Southern Exposition, in Louisville, Kentucky. The Southern Exposition was a series of world's fairs held in Louisville, Kentucky from August 1, 1883 to 1887. The exposition showcased the South's products, including cotton, and featured a working farm and horticultural garden.

The Southern Exposition
Also known as The Cotton Exposition
Louisville, Kentucky
(Click image to enlarge)

  • Lines 11-12, horse races in Mitchell, South Dakota, July 3-4.
  • Line 13, "Over" [continues on page 18]








 





















"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."
—Thomas Jefferson










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March 28, 2021

Did Soapy Smith go to Deadwood, South Dakota in 1897?

SOAPY SMITH IS IN TOWN
The Deadwood Evening Independent
May 18, 1897

(Click image to enlarge)





 
id Soapy Smith go to Deadwood, North Dakota in 1897?
 
 
 
 
 
If you watched HBOs series Deadwood (2004), then you may recall seeing a character loosely based on Soapy Smith ("Soap with a prize inside!"). A lot of research went into the making of the series, and apparently they found the old published letter from a Deadwood pioneer writing about a particular stagecoach ride in which one passenger was "Wild Bill" Hickok, and the other was "Soapy" Smith. While it is possible that there was a passenger who went by the alias of "Soapy," it is likely not Jefferson Randolph Smith, who at age 16, was still living at home with his parents and siblings in Round Rock, Texas. It would be another nine years (1885) before he would obtain the moniker "Soapy."
     The topic of Soapy Smith in Deadwood comes up occasionally, but until now there has been no evidence that he visited the town. The primary Deadwood gold rush ended in 1890, but gold was still being mined, and the population maintained a slow growth, so there was money to be made for someone of Soapy's career choice. He had visited smaller towns in his travels, so it is possible. 
     After 1890 famous gambler's, such as Alice Ivers Duffield, known to most as "Poker Alice Tubbs," were still arriving and working in Deadwood, via train, also a newcomer to the gold-town. Al Swearingen and his Gem Theatre were still operating (until 1899). Gambling and prostitution were still legal (until 1898), indicating that Daedwood was still on the wild side, a natural attraction for Soapy Smith to visit in 1897.
 
Still wild
Deadwood in 1897

 (Click image to enlarge)

     The newspaper piece is dated May 18, 1897 so one of my first tasks was to try and pin-point where Soapy was known to be operating around this time.
  • January-February 1897: Spokane.
  • May 1897: St. Louis.
  • July 1897: Seattle.
     Soapy was constantly moving around during this period. Few of the letters written to him at his last known location, did not reach him right away. Thus, it is very possible that he was in Deadwood in May 1897. 
 
MAYBE THIS REALLY IS SOAPY?
 
 
Seth Bullock, Sol Star and Soapy Smith?
 
(Click image to enlarge)
 
Back on December 18, 2020 on Facebook I posted the above photograph taken in Deadwood, South Dakota, showing Seth Bullock and Sol Star, with an unidentified gentleman that looks surprisingly like Soapy Smith. At the time I did not think it was Soapy so I did not post it here in this blog. When I posted the newspaper clipping that mentions Soapy Smith in Deadwood in Deadwood on May 18, 1897 I sought out the photograph of Seth Bullock and Sol Star and have to wonder if that third gentleman is actually Soapy?

 



"It is a notorious fact that confidence men and gamblers and other traffickers in the weaknesses of human nature are shrewd, companionable and generous men. They are generous on the order of “lightly come, lightly go.”"
—Daily Alaskan, July 25, 1898.







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