Soapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1882: Part #10 - page 10

Soapy Smith's "star" notebook
Page 10 - original copy
1882
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

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.

Soapy Smith's "star" notebook
Page 10 - enhanced
1882
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

Soapy Smith's "star" notebook
Page 10 - negative
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 Smith's "star" notebook
Page 10 - deciphered
1882
Courtesy of Geri Murphy

(Click image to enlarge)

     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, mentioned on page 2 (1882).

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.

Great Sherman Circus (Show)
The Oregonian
August 30, 1882

(Click image to enlarge)

Great Sherman Circus (Show)
The Oregonian
September 14, 1882

(Click image to enlarge)

THE CIRCUS
Roseburg Review
Roseburg, Oregon
July 22, 1882

(Click image to enlarge)

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 are numerous cities name "Aurora" in the US., including Colorado, but as all the other cities listed on this notebook page are located in Oregon, and Aurora is one of the stops for the Great Sherman Circus, it is a safe bet that this is Aurora, Oregon.

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"

Art writes,

     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.

Mapped route of the circus

(Click image to enlarge)

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.

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 #11
Part #12
Part #13
Part #14
Part #15
Part #16

Part #17 
Part #18
Part #19

Part #20
Part #21
Part #22-23

Part #24 (not published yet)

"The only sure thing about luck is that it will change."

—Wilson Mizner

Will Raid the Camp at Skaguay: San Francisco Call, 09/06/1897.

WILL RAID THE CAMP AT SKAGUAY
San Francisco Call – Bulletin
September 6, 1897

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 

OLD OPERATIONS OF CRIMINALS."

 

Just weeks after Skaguay’s “founding” Soapy Smith was already entrenched within the gambling and saloon hierarchy of the new camp. Below is the transcription of the article from the San Francisco Call – Bulletin, September 6, 1897. My personal notes and comments follow.

WILL RAID THE CAMP AT SKAGUAY

Officers of Alaska Intend to drive Out the Lawless Element.

SHARKS ON THE TRAIL WITH A SHELL GAME.

Hardships of Unfortunate Gold-Seekers, Who Cannot Go Forward, Increased by the Bold Operations of Criminals.

      SEATTLE, WASH., Sept. 5.—Things have about reached a crises at Skaguay. Trouble, it is asserted, cannot be averted, and the condition of affairs is so alarming that Government officers are gathering in a squad to save Americans. The steamer Queen arrived from the north at 3 o’clock this morning and brings down the latest news. It is alleged that gamblers and other criminals, while robbing miners every hour of the day and night, are doing everything in their power to cause a blockade on White Pass and drive the thousands of desperate men into a winter’s camp at Skaguay, so that the robbery can continue. Some of the most notorious criminals of the country are there. The old shell game is being worked with success almost on the summit of White Pass by “Soapy” Jim Smith, a renowned crook from St. Louis. An ex-convict from Montana is assisting him. Then, too, thieves are at work. On August 27 one miner’s tent was relieved of $1400.
     On the Queen were George B. Kittinger of this city and Colonel F. S. Chadbourne of San Francisco, a State Harbor Commissioner of California. From interviews had with these men it is apparent that the worst has yet to be told concerning the horrors at Skaguay. Mr. Kittinger, who is the Alaska representative of Millionaire J. Edward Addicks, returned for additional funds with which to secure boats and transportation from their camp to the lakes. Before leaving the trail Mr. Kittinger offered two men $200 a thousand for whipsawing lumber at the lakes for two boats. The men refused the job, and Kittinger finally contracted to purchase the boats at $350 each. Kittinger says:

     “The feeling is most intense among the miners on the trail. Trouble of the most serious nature is likely to break out at any minute. The miners’ committee, impelled by the wholesale stealing that has been going on for weeks past, held a meeting and announced that the first man caught in theft would be strung up without the formality of a trial.
     “All the men in the camp have been made desperate by the failure to get over the trail and by the terrible hardships they have been compelled to endure in the hopeless struggle against odds. The miners have become suspicious of each other and quarrels are of hourly occurrence. Every man’s hand is raised against every other man. The lawless characters are much in evidence and dissensions and discords have broken out among the miners until such a thing as co-operation is impossible. Words are utterly inadequate to describe the trail. You cannot put it too strong. If there were 300 there instead of 6000 it would be different, but with men and horses—some of the latter not more brutes than the men—there is much struggling and fighting for a chance to get beyond the summit. All efforts to place the trail in shape for travel are utterly in vain.”

      The attention of the authorities of Alaska have been drawn to Skaguay, and Governor Brady and Collector Ivey detailed and announced to him his intention of raiding Skaguay with a force of deputy marshals, driving out the whisky smugglers, saloon men and dive keepers and arresting the confidence men and thugs.
     “This,” said Colonel Chadbourne, “is the only way in which they hope to avoid crimes of all descriptions during the winter. The whisky men and thieves have conspired to keep the trail blocked so that thousands will be forced to winter at Skaguay. They know that the authorities are not able to cope with them and figure on getting every dollar out of the tenderfeet from the East before spring sets in. All sorts of traps are laid for the unwary Easterners and men from the villages of the coast. Soapy Jim, one of the most notorious confidence operators on the coast, conducts a shell game right out on the open trail. Jack Jolly, the murderer who has just been released from the Montana penitentiary, is on the grounds and says that Skaguay is the easiest graft in the country.”

      Collector Ivey said that if he could break up the whisky smugglers and dive-keepers the camp would disperse, the gold hunters return to Juneau and the Sound for the winter and quiet would be restored.
     Governor Brady is quoted as saying that the situation is laden with trouble, and that he intends notifying the department at Washington of the condition of affairs. The action of the Collector’s deputies in taxing the Canadian mounted police $30 per head duty for their horses has incensed the Canadians, and as they passed up the trail they openly announced their intention of “cinching” the first of the American miners that got to Lake Tagish, where the Canadian customs officers is established.
     In spite of the attempt of the miners’ committee to close the trail so that it could be repaired, one party of twelve, with drawn revolvers and loaded rifles, announced their intention of going through to the summit. They passed a guard of miners and set out for the summit. The committee was called together and a number of armed men were sent after them to head them off. If trouble is averted it will be by the greatest good luck. The men have lost all sense of reason and are desperate and reckless.

GETTING READY FOR THE OPENING.
San Francisco Call – Bulletin
September 6, 1897

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PICTURE

GETTING READY FOR THE OPENING.

      The above picture, which is from a sketch made by H. W. Nelson, represents a scene before the pioneer dance hall of Skaguay just previous to opening for business. The piano on the wagon was formerly used in Morosco’s Theater in this City, but four years ago it was taken to Juneau and placed in the opera-house there. When the Klondike craze set in and gave Skaguay a boom one of the first necessities of the new town was a dance hall. People couldn’t dance without music, and as all the fiddlers had thrown up their positions and gone to the mines, the piano in the Juneau Opera-house was purchased and shipped to the new town. The owner of the wagon in which the piano was transported from the beach was ordered out of town for taking $10 from the body of a man which he had recovered from the river. He accordingly disposed of his wagon and horses for the sum of $2250 and left. The present owner is now earning $240 a day with the outfit. The rope with a running noose at the end hanging from the limb of a tree is termed “The Policeman,” and is intended as a warning to the criminal element.

NOTES

1. Soapy was still in Skaguay as of this newspaper publication, having arrived August 20, 1897 with partners Jerry J. Daly and Jack Jolly, the latter being mentioned as "the murderer who has just been released from the Montana penitentiary." According to Daly, the three men worked 19 days of the 23 days they were in the new camp, netting about $30,000, which was split three ways. After 23 days the trio boarded the steamer Queen and sailed to Seattle, Washington, arriving there on September 22, 1897. 
2. The reporter/newspaper was in error in stating that Jefferson Randolph Smith's first name was "Jim."
3. It should be noted that it was reported in Washington state newspapers that Soapy was "forced to leave" Skaguay by the vigilantes and the deputy marshals. This was not true. Soapy made alliances with the saloon proprietors, Frank and John Clancy brothers, setting up the early stages of his new empire in Skaguay and besides not wanting to get stuck in another Alaska winter as he did in 1896 in Hope, Alaska, he decided to spend the winter in the states. Something else encouraged him homeward. His wife Mary had written him that she was ill. By the time he had reached Seattle she had written again, that she was much feeling better. Bat Masterson, a friend of Jerry Daly, one of Soapy's associates during the Skaguay trip, reported in the newspaper that Soapy was not forced to leave Skaguay via the vigilantes or any lawmen.    
   
4. The White Pass trail had just opened up in July 1897. It was over-grown with brush and trees. In the summer of 2022 I was in Skagway, Alaska. The Chilkoot trail out of Dyea is open and constantly maintained, unlike the White Pass trail, which appears today much as it did in 1897. There are only small sections out of Skagway that have been partially maintained enough to walk on. Other than that, it is pretty dense with foliage to attempt in summer time, let alone in the winter months. Because winter was coming in 1897, it was very dangerous to attempt to get to the Klondike from Skaguay. Many could perish. In fact, those that made it to Dawson (Klondike) in 1897 nearly starved to death that first winter, according to most histories. So much so that the North-West Mounted Police required each man to bring with him 2000 pounds of supplies in order to cross the border into Canada. Imagine if those 6,000 (according to article) had been allowed to continue on to the Klondike, how many might have starved to death, if they even made it to Dawson? Sort of lends credit to Soapy’s "defense" he often used in Alaska, that he was saving lives by sending the hayseeds back home, or in this case, turning them back towards Skaguay to spend the winter.
   
5. Turning the stampeders on the trail back towards Skagway was good for Soapy Smith, as well as for the proprietors of the saloons, gambling dens and the other merchants of Skaguay as it meant more customers and profits in the winter months which were expected to wane considerably. The growing criminal underworld and legitimate merchants surely appreciated Soapy's actions and showed their loyalty by looking the other way when it came to his nefarious activities.
6. The article's drawing, Getting Ready for the Opening, "represents a scene before the pioneer dance hall of Skaguay." Note that although 'pioneer dance hall' appears to be a name of the establishment it is not capitalized. As Clancy's Saloon and Music Hall was one of the first money backed establishments in Skaguay I believe the picture's description could be of the Clancy's place.

 

Clancy's Saloon and Music Hall
Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries

 (Click image to enlarge)

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

"When a sucker sees a corner turned up, or a little spot on a card in three-card monte, he does not know that it was done for the purpose of making him think he has the advantage. He thinks, of course, the player does not see it, and he is in such a hurry to get out his money that he often cuts or tears his clothes. After they have put up their money and turned the card, they see that the mark was put there for a purpose. Then they are mad, because they are beat at their own game. They begin to kick, and want their money back, but they would not have thought of such a thing had they won the money from a blind man, for they did think he must be nearly blind, or he could have seen the mark on the winning card. They expected to rob a blind man, and got left. I never had any sympathy for them, and I would fight before I would give them back one cent. It is a good lesson for a dishonest man to be caught by some trick, and I always did like to teach it."

—George Devol

BUNKO MEN AND THEIR TRICKS. San Francisco Chronicle, April 10, 1898

Shell and Pea Game on the Trail
"Sketched from life by M. W. Newberry"
San Francisco Chronicle
April 10, 1898

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 

 

UNKO MEN AND THEIR TRICKS

 

     A wonderfully detailed description of the modus operandi of Soapy Smith's three shell and pea manipulators along the Chilkoot and White Pass trails.

 

Witnessed and reported by Joseph D. Barry, and published in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 10, 1898. Besides this article, Barry played an important role in Skagway history, as an official witness and jury member in the May 31, 1898, inquest into the death and robbery of prostitute Ella D. Wilson. Below is the transcribed text of the article, complete with my additional comments.  

 

BUNKO MEN AND THEIR TRICKS.

Many Are at Work on the Trails.

Weary Plodders Often Taken In.

Klondike Pilgrims and their Wealth Separated.

The Old Pea and Shell Game Finds Many Victims Among
the Climbers of the Chilcoot Pass.

SKAGWAY, March 27, 1898.—Since the grass has begun to grow short for them in town, some of the confidence workers who still remain have taken to the trails, where they continue to set snares for the dollars of unwary Klondikers. On the Skagway trail the sure-thing gambler seldom goes higher than the foot of White pass summit. Half a dozen or so of his tribe usually travel together, sharing at the close of the day the profits of the tricks they have turned.

One of the party is chosen as active operator. His necessary qualifications are a capacity to judge human character and a tongue that is gifted with glibness. The successful confidence game operator is best described by the expressive term “spellbinder.” His confederates, the steerers carefully disassociate themselves from him whenever a possible victim is in sight.

The better to disguise his wolfish character the steerer frequently dons the sheep’s clothing of a packer. It is no uncommon incident on the trail to see two or more notorious bunko-steerers faring along, one after the other, apparently heavily burdened with packs, which if investigated would prove to be nothing more substantial than straw or chips in canvas sacks.

The "sheep's clothing of a packer" description perfectly fits the methods of soap gang member Van B. "Old Man" Triplett. According to his newspaper obituary, he was born about 1841 in Virginia and was the originator of the gold brick scam. A con man of forty years, he joined Soapy's entourage in 1894, going to Skagway where he impersonated a stampeder complete with pack (said to be filled with feathers), working three-card monte at the Skaguay entrance to the White Pass trail. It was Triplett who operated the three-card monte game against John Stewart, stealing his gold, which directly resulted in Soapy Smith's death at the hands of the vigilantes.

A little ahead of them always is the operator, equipped with a small, portable table, three shells and the elusive pea. When the first one reaches the manipulator of the ancient but to the “sucker” ever new game he stops, watches and listens, and finally lays down his pack, as if to rest, Steerer No. 2 follows his example, as do the other in turn. By the time the prospective victim arrives he finds a spurious Klondiker just winning a bet from the shell game player, amid the half envious congratulations of his confederates.

“Well, well, this is my unlucky day,” says the man with the table, “but I’ll give some other gentleman a chance to win on the little pea.” Back and forth and round about go the shells again, a glimpse of the pea being given the watchers at seductively frequent intervals. Another steerer guesses its location and wins a greenback or two.

“You fellows are hitting me too hard,” dubiously comments the operator. “I must size up my roll before I take any more bets.” He opens a well-lined pocketbook, and while his attention is taken up with its contents one of the steerers slyly raises the shell under which the pea is hidden. That catches the outsider, unless he be invulnerable against the temptations of bunko. Laying his finger on the shell indicated to him he offers to bet $10, $20, $50 or a higher sum that it covers the pea. His bet is taken, the shell is lifted and the pea proves to be somewhere else. Usually the victim makes a second and perhaps a third bet in the hope of retrieving his loss, always with the same result. A witness to one of these episodes tells of having seen a prospector who had lost $90 sit upon his pack and burst into tears. He said that his last dollar had gone on the game. Still higher up the trail that same day a man who runs a tent restaurant bet and lost $20, but the shell-game player was glad to disgorge it when the victim’s wife, a 200-pound lady of German nativity, seized him by the coat collar and screamed lustily for help.

It is also related that a man in clerical garb, said to be a missionary, dropped $100 in a single bet. He immediately picked up his daintily bound pack and resumed his journey. Without uttering a word of regret or complaint.

Yesterday a woman who said she was going to the Klondike in the interest of the Smithsonian Institution complained to Captain L. A. Matile that confidence workers were so annoying on the trail that she feared to continue her journey. She is traveling alone and had called at the Regular Army encampment on her way out of town. Captain Matile, who commands the troops here, sent an escort of two soldiers with her as far as the northwest mounted police post at Summit lake.

After working one point on the trail thoroughly the confidence workers scatter, to reappear at another point under like circumstances some time later in the day. On the Skagway trail the shell game is not in operation regularly. The men engaged at it are supposed to be a detachment of “Soapy” Smith’s gamblers. Those who operate in Dyea, Sheep Camp and along to the base of Chilcoot are under the leadership of “Tom” Cady, a notorious Colorado mining camp confidence man.

While it is true that the con men operating in Dyea and the Chilcoot (spelled Chilkoot) trail were under the leadership of Tom Cady, it is believed that Cady reported to Soapy Smith. Thomas P. "Sure-Shot" or "Troublesome Tom" Cady was a member of the soap gang in Colorado, operating the shell game for Soapy. Cady, known for his nasty temper and habit of carrying a 12-inch dirk, followed Soapy from Denver to Creede, Colorado, in 1892 and back to Denver, where he became a prime suspect with Soapy in the 1892 shooting death of gambler Clifton "Cliff" Sparks. He accompanied Soapy to Mexico in 1894 and likely followed Soapy to Alaska, becoming Soapy's manager of operations in Dyea.

Other devices for catching “suckers” besides the pea and shells are heard of occasionally. The salted-mine man is one of the most recent additions to those who seek to get something for nothing. J. T. Jones, president of the Guarantee Title and Abstract Company of Juneau, yesterday saved a Dyea merchant from falling into the clutches of one of this variety. The merchant told Jones that he had a chance to buy a placer mine for the very low price of $500. It was a new strike, only five miles outside of Dyea, and the locator, being out of funds, was willing to sacrifice his claim. Jones was then shown specimens of gold from the placer, it being in shot and smaller particles.

In the afternoon the miner accompanied Jones and the merchant to his claim, where he panned samples of the dirt. The specimens obtained looked genuine, but feeling dubious, nevertheless, the Juneau man to-day had them tested. They proved to be a composition of copper, zinc, bismuth and tin.

As a United States Deputy Marshal Cudihee is now the sole guardian of the peace for Skagway and Dyea, it is almost impossible to keep sure-thing gamblers and others of their ilk off the trails.

Amazingly, I do not have much on U.S. Deputy Marshal John Cudihee other than he was in Soapy's May 1, 1898, parade in Skagway.

 

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

Shell and pea game: pages 8, 10, 15, 27, 51, 53-55, 58, 64, 72, 78-80, 92, 99, 110, 112, 115, 141, 205, 210, 229-31, 248, 250, 256, 308, 351, 362, 368, 465-67, 471-72, 475-77, 482, 492, 498, 505, 535, 548, 594.

Joseph D. Barry: page 506.

Ella D. Wilson: pages 506-512.

Van B. "Old Man" Triplett: pages 90-92, 471, 475, 526, 554, 564-67, 575-79, 595.

Thomas P. "Troublesome Tom" Cady: pages 79, 210-11, 229, 250-51, 253-57, 260, 264, 362, 450.

 Clifton Sparks: pages 79, 250-59, 263, 268, 289, 291-92, 502, 507, 529.

 U.S. Deputy Marshal John Cudihee: page 500.

"With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spades, the emblems of untimely graves."

—William Cowper

Soapy Smith opens a shell and pea game on the pass, October 1, 1897

‘Soapy’ Smith opened up a shell game
The Philipsburg Mail
Philipsburg, Montana
October 1, 1897

(Click image to enlarge)

 

alk about hard times”

Below is the transcribed article clipping from The Philipsburg Mail (Philipsburg, Montana), October 1, 1897.

“Talk about hard times,” said Mr. Harris, “one could scarcely believe there was such a thing any where in the land after seeing the apparent prosperity among the people of Sheep Camp. Any man you may meet is prepared to change a $100 bill, and big gambling games are constantly going on. A fellow who is known in many parts of the country as ‘Soapy’ Smith opened up a shell game on the pass and in a few days he captured enough ‘suckers’ so that he pulled out when we did with $20,000 in cold cash. One-half of his winnings were scooped from two brothers who had spent the past three years in the Klondike and were on their way home to make their families happy when they fell victims to the ‘sure thing’ game and went broke. 

 

Interesting to note that "Mr. Harris" knew about the amount of money (actually $30,000 not $20,000) taken in by Soapy, Jack Jolly and Jerry Daily. The story of Soapy's profit during his first 23 days in Skagway. The earliest newspaper accounting I could find occurred in September 1897 so it is possible that "Mr. Harris" read about Soapy's success and pretended to be a first-hand witness. My first hint that led me to question "Mr. Harris," is how a miner would have so much information on Soapy's operation, including the fact that "One-half of his winnings were scooped from two brothers ..." Great story though!

 

"Someone once asked me why women don't gamble as much as men do, and I gave the common-sensical reply that we don't have as much money. That was a true but incomplete answer. In fact, women's total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage."

—Gloria Steinem

Jeff Smith runs the shell and pea con.

EFF SMITH RUNS THE SHELL AND PEA CON

Jeff made friends among the worst and the best in society, from criminals to congressmen.

—(talking about Soapy Smith)
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 16

MAY 3

1568: French forces in Florida kill hundreds of Spanish soldiers and civilians.

1802: Washington, the District of Columbia, is incorporated.

1855: Macon Allen is the first black-American to be admitted to the Bar in Massachusetts.

1873: Manuel Fernandez is the first in Arizona territory to be legally executed, for the murder of Mike McCartney, a Yuma store keeper.

1882: President Chester Arthur threatens martial law due to lawlessness in Cochise County, Arizona Territory.

1888: Florence, Arizona Sheriff Peter Gabriel, shoots and kills Joe Phy, an ex-deputy. Both men had been drinking in a saloon previous to the fight.

Although wounded in the groin and chest, Gabriel recovers and is exonerated on grounds of self-defense.

1888: Thomas Edison organizes the Edison Phonograph Works.

1889: Thirty Denver, Colorado policemen raid the cities red-light district with 110 warrants.

Soapy Smith on Jeopardy

Would Soapy have made a good game show host?

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will take CON MEN for $400 please, Alex...

      March 25, 2014 will be remembered and treasured within the family of Soapy Smith. The date, and its importance, is permanently included in the ON THIS DAY calendar of events I publish at the bottom of each blog entry (scroll down). On the very popular TV game show, Jeopardy, Soapy's name came up in a question under the category Con Men. No one got the correct answer about where Soapy hid a little ball. The answer? Under a shell. As my good friend, Whit "Pop" Haydn write, "It pays to keep up with this page folks! It might one day help you on Jeopardy."  About five of my friends, all fans of Soapy, contacted me on Facebook and in emails, about the mention. You just know you made the big time when your name is mentioned on a TV game show...

 

Not the least amusing trait of “Soapy” Smith’s character is the eager interest which he takes in the preservation of law and order. The interest is, of course, not purely unselfish, for he realizes that crimes of violence create a sort of public opinion likely to be unhealthy for his own peaceful, if peculiar, industry. He feels that there are times when fine distinctions get confused, and therefore he is always foremost for law and order coupled with life, liberty and the pursuit of a sure thing. [San Francisco Examiner]

—Alias Soapy Smith, p. 493.

MARCH 26

1804: Congress divides the Louisiana Purchase into the District of Louisiana and the Territory of Orleans, and then orders the removal of all Indians east of the Mississippi to Louisiana.

1862: The Civil War, Battle of La Glorieta Pass, in New Mexico Territory, ends. It was called the "Gettysburg of the West." 1862: Union troops capture 50 Confederate soldiers in a fight near Denver, Colorado Territory.

1874: Rancher, John Iliff, brings in the body of C. M. Manchester, a cowboy who was killed by Indians near Cheyenne, Wyoming.

1879: A mob pulls Bill Howard, a convicted rapist, from his jail cell in Fort Scott, Kansas, hanging him from a lamp post, and then setting his corpse on fire.

1881: Outlaw Bill Ryan, of the James gang takes shelter from a storm in the White's Creek Store and Saloon near Nashville, Tennessee. He drinks heavily and is arrested. Jesse and Frank James learn of Ryan's arrest, and fearing he might talk to authorities, Jesse leaves Nashville with his family for Kansas City, Missouri, while Frank takes his family to Virginia.

1882: Frederic Remington's first nationally published illustration, “Cowboys of Arizona,” appears in Harper's Weekly.

1884: Charles Kusz is shot and killed through the upstairs window of his home Manzano, New Mexico. Kusz published The Gringo and the Greaser, a controversial newspaper that attacked numerous groups, including Catholics, rustlers, the education system, etc.

1885: Eastman Kodak (Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company) produces the first commercial motion picture film in Rochester, New York.

1910: Congress passes an amendment to the 1907 Immigration Act that bars criminals, paupers, anarchists, and carriers of disease from entering the U.S.