LAW AND ORDER

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 May 1928, Page 9

LAW AND ORDER

STORY OF THE YUKON. VANCOUVER, April I. Tourists to Alaska and Yukon shudder as they pass up the narrow channel to Skagway, for, perched on a grey limestone cliff 250 ft. above the water, is a mammoth skull, whose teeth they can easily count —memorialising “Soapy” Smith and his career of lawlessness. Most, notorious of Alaska’s bad men, Smith might have stepped out of a dime novel or a penny dreadful. In the days of '9B, when Skagway was thronged with men seeking gold, and tragedy, occurred daily in the Chilcott Pass and ont he Heartbreak Trail, Smith commanded the road to the Klondyke. Like Robin Hood, he had a, charitable streak. He frequently gave generously to women and children and to men who came back on the trail, broken and defeated. Smith appeared in Skagway in the fall of ’97. There were 15,000 people in. the port of the. Yukon; now thejre are 500. He soon established leadership over a gang of desperadoes, directing them from his ornate saloon ami gambling house. Smaller gambling operators were taxed by Smith on a fifty-fifty basis. When business was dull, he would order his gunmen out, to bring in customers by force. He carried three guns—two on the hip and one under his left armpit. But lie never shot a man—except Frank Reid. Frank Reid was 54, Smith was 36. Reid had laid out Skagway, and he believed that citizens should enforce the law when, the authorities failed to do so. Oddly, Smith and Reid were cronies, although they disagreed on this subject of law and order. Smith said that, there was only one man in Alaska who could “get” him; that was Reid. In July, 1898, Alexander Stewart, a. prospector, came over the Trail from Dawson, on route to the “outside.” He deposited £6OO in gold dust with Smith according to the usual practice, i i the absence of banks. When Stewart called for his gold. Smith and his bar-tenders pretended that, they did not know him, and ordered him out. Stewart appealed to Reid. This was the third similar theft, that Reid had learned of, and he decided that the prevailing, form of banking must end. He called a mass meeting next, night, but. Smith entered the hall, rapped for order. His gunmen prodded the audience’s ribs with their revolvers, and told them to go home. Not. desiring bloodshed, Reid acquiesced, and tiie meeting broke up. Another meeting was called, with the same, result. Reid then summoned a. meeting, to be held on one of the wharves, which could Im approached only by causeways, forming a. T. The location was strategic. ■ Reid relieved three men on guard at - the wharf all day, and at sunset made. > a. deadline with a. surveyor’s chain. Smith, hearing that Reid was holding the approach to the wharf, gulped down, several tumblers of brandy, seized a. cavalry carbine, and set out. followed by 200 armed henchmen, the populace bringing up the rear. Reid saw them coming. Sixty feet from the deadline, Smith halted. Reid told him lie, must. not. cross the chain. Smith went on. A second warning had no effect, and Reid fired. Smith ; sank, to his knees, with a bullet in his breast. Drawing his carbine, Im lired. a.i’d Reid fell, mortally wounded in I!'" • '.oiii.k I] i'.L> lie Jay "rpaiiiug

was forsaken by his henchmen. He died without, comfort, beating the giound with his hands. Reid was taken to hospital, and lingered for three weeks. The world was moved by his gallant defence of law and order. and President M’Kinlay sent a. personal message, praying he would get well. His room at the hospital was filled wilh Howers, put. the,re at. Jhe order of admirers on the “outside.” His funeral was the largest in Alaska’s history. On his tomb is the epitaph: “He gave his life tor the honor of Skagway.” Smith’s body, wrapped in a. maekinaw blankel, was buried in a rough spruce box. A wooden slab marks his grave, which is not 20ft. from Reid's , on a hill overlooking Uie town they both loved —in different, ways. Federal prisons ac? <<■loox>d a 0 ■< I the ni-'i i*>ri I,V ol Sniilli :