WAY OF A TRANSGRESSOR

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 147, 6 June 1936, Page 15

WAY OF A TRANSGRESSOR

CAREER OF SOAPY SMITH yyHEN Soapy Smith died, the looa: minister choise for the text of hi. funeral oration, "The way of traMgres sors is hard.” This was singular) appropriate; Soapy was a transgress, and his way had undoubtedly been hard His real name was Jefferson Randolph Smith, and he was one of the most remarkable figures in the old West oi America. His story Is told by Mr. W. R Collier and Mr. E. V. Westrate in “The Reign of Soapy Smith: Monarch ot Misrule.” They sum him up thus:— "Soldier of .fortune and imposter unparalleled, master of every “oon" gam< and philanthropist, ruler of rogues and vagabonds and friend ot the trtendleaprotector of criminals and builder ot churches, this King of Misrule was ar many-sided as he was incomprehensible His nickname “Soapy” came from one of his earliest and most successful confidence tricks—selling cakes of soap that might have paper money ot wartoue denominations wrapped round them. Needless to say, they seldom did! Smith carried on most of hii duadour business in Denver, the capital ot the State of Colorado. He gathered rotrm him a tough and variegated bunch of helpers. Denver must have been an extraordinary place in the ’eighties. Horse-draw: tram-cars rattled through the streets:— “One famous line, which ran uphill had its compensations for the horn After he had pulled the ear up the grade he mounted a trailer and had a free ridon the return trip!" Soapy and his friends were Mt the only danger to the unwary visitor. In Seventeenth Street lived ths bandit barbers. A stranger entering one at the shops of these modern Sweeney Todd would see a very reasonable price Ils' hanging over the mirror. But onoe be had ordered a haircut and was safely 11 the chair, “his locks were shorn. Singed and shampooed, treated for dandrui) soaked with tonic; his face was shaved and massaged; his eyebrows, heard, ano moustache were trimmed, waxed an< curled. Nothing was missed. And whik his face was burled in the bowl for th< shampoo, the price list was turned ovei so that when the victim came up for ai: he would find himself facing a list o' costs each Item of which was remlaJscen of the national debt.” Naturally, brawls were frequent; bu the barbers always extracted tbei. money, even if they had to take ft for cibly and then throw the customer inb the street! Anyone who seemed wealth; was “nicked”—a distinguishing mar. being made In his hair at the back ot hl neck—and thereafter received the attentions of Soapy's gang. “Colonel Stone” Arrives. When Denver periodically became to. hot to hold him. Soapy moved elsewher for a time. One of his most aatlsfactor resting places was the new sllver-mlnir.. town of Creede. Here he had a brillian scheme for making, simultaneous: money and a name for himself. He ar nounced that he had discovered the re mains of a gigantic prehistoric manreally they were made in a Denver stem yard—and exhibited them in the town People poured in to see “Colonel Stone, as. he was called:— “Crude as It was, the monsteosit proved a source ot revenue to him fo more than five years. In their Ignorant and unceasing search for sensations, the gullible continued to pay to view It, near and far, for it did not remain long in Creede.” When Soapy moved to Skagway, th? port that sprang into fame during the Klondike Gold Rush, he had a mor. sinister exhibit. He acquired an eagi' and placed it in a cage in the back yard of his saloon. Strangers '‘were invited to 'see the eagle.’ To accept the invitation was to court instant disaster. Mair a Klondike miner, bereft of his pole awakened somewhere in Skagway ’. streets, to recall a struggle In front ■ the scheduled cage of the sky pirate the last of his recollections before mi consciousness overtook him." But Soapy had another side to h character. In 1893 an itinerant preach arrived at Creede and appealed tor he to its dictator, Soapy. “The towr. yours,” he said. “It needs a little r. ligion”:— “Turning to his own men, Soapy we: on: 'We’re all going to church next Si> day,’ lie announced, 'and the rest of 11 gang’s going with us to hear the pars: here.’ “‘But I haven’t any church,’ tl preacher protested. “ ‘That’s easy,’ Soapy retorted. ‘Con on, boys, we’re on our way to rai money.’ ” And raise It they did—six hundr dollars—from all the saloons, dance hall and gambling dens! Soapy later on d almost exactly the same thing in Sku' way—although somebody had sa.'f "When hell freeze* over, It will be Ilk Skagway.” , The First Plane. Like old Denver, Skagway was a nlgl? mare place. Money flowed freely—b there was nothing much except drink a: gambling to spend it on. One day a pirn, arrived at the Nugget Saloon, and ti whole town turned out to celebrate ti event. As one pianist collapsed und the influence of the many drinks provided by his admirers, “his place w taken promptly by another musician: dipsomaniac who likewise played un he was completely befuddled. From th moment it arrived, the piano was kc going continuously for 24 hours, with th. players working in relays. At the end < that time the Instrument had paid fir itself by the tremendous trade it dre ' to the house." Later on, pianos were brought In b‘ every ship. Another day a little Neapolitan cam to Skagway with "hundreds of deflate ’ toy balloons on the strange theory the the hard-boiled miners of Skagway would like to buy them. Curious) enough, he was right. He was able t sell all his balloons at high prices ant cleared enough money to enable him tc go into the gold fields, from which h< later returned with a poke of gold dus of gratifying weight.” At Skagway Soapy Smith reached the highest peak of his fluctuating career And here he died like a dog. After ar unpleasant incident In his saloon. th” more decent citizens—there seem to hav ■ been some!—began to turn against him His friends deserted him, so he gam, went out to face his critics alon<—wl

a rifle over his shoulder--and v killed.