The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 24, 1898, Page 17

THE KILLING OF “SOAPY” SMITH AT THE HEAD OF HIS GANG WHILE TRYING TO BREAK UP /41( == A CAPY’ & THE MEETING OF THE LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS AT SKAGUAY, ALASKA. KAGUAY, July 9—The five housand peo; this pla re vesterday thrown into the st excitement by one of most terrible lessness in the 1 sure thing games, and robbing the Klon- S on the trail to the Lake Of late they b > been holding high fana Skaguay and . terrorizing everybody. Soapy Smith’s methods were many. his recent operatlons was s fixed up for his busin t locations around town. - business signs over the doors strangers, for members of to his gang stood over all these traps On the rival of the passenger sels Soapy would detail his men at the wharf to hoodwink strangers and bring them to th d Some of the places would ibly be inform- ation bureaus; o s were conducted as pack tr rate ticket in offices, and others as cut Tices for Dawson. The office for the pack train service the most successful, as - most every one coming here has more or less packing to do. Soapy’s rates for work were always a little better than those in the actual business houses. After getting a vietim's promise to ca an outfit, Soapy would ask for a deposit just a guarantee, as he sald, that the freight would not be given to any one c When the victim wouid take out his wallet to make the pay- ment gome member of the gang would .grab the sack from his hand. Then some one else in the gang would pre- tend to get Indignant and swear he would not stand by and see a man robbed in that way. The whole ng would then make a rush for the thief, In the scuffle some one would knock down the victim. By the time he was straightened up the gang would be gone. These robberies were openly prac- ticed by day as well as by night. The gang s bold and indifferent to all law and order, and did pretty much as they pleased. “To-day the first lot of miners came In from Dawson City on their way to their homes, with their winter’s clean- up of gold dust. So much dust in tran. sit about town was too good a thing for Soapy’s gang to let pass. 8o one of his men was detailed to cultivate the friendship of some of the returned Klondikers. This fellow readily made the acquaintance of one J. D. Stewart, and induced him to exhibit his gold qust to the gang. They had cajoled him into believing that their sole de- > in life was to see the appearance like gold dust; they. said anted to see If it differed in ap- pearance from the dust of other min- ing localities. Stewart unwittingly went to the merchant afe, where he had depos- clean-up on arriving in town, and returned with the bag, containing . Sudde d reached ¢ k; another struck ing to rob Stewart, and knocked him out of the door. The gang then began fighting among themselves, and in the scrimmage one of them made away with the sack. ¥ This deed brought the Skaguay citi- zens to a realization of their position and duty in the protection of life and property. The merchan er and grabbed the him a blow for at once called a meet- ing t a vigilance commit- tee to order Soapy Smith and all such charaeters out of town. The City: Marshal i said to have stood in on the “divvy” with the gang, and would . not interfere or serve papers for their arrest. While this mass meeting of law- ablding citizens was in progress, Smith got word of it. Winchester rifle in hand, and with his followers, which he called “The Skaguay Militia,” at his heels, he marched down the street to the place of meeting. Secapy was swearing as he went along that he would scatter that crowd, and teach them not to interfere in his business. Hundreds of the terror stricken peo- ple rushed to their homes to arm them- selves, The first man Soapy met at the door of the meeting was Mr. Reld, City Sur- veyor. Soapy struck him over the head with his rifle and then fired at him. Reid fell to the ground wounded. He wrenched his pistol from his belt and fired two shots at Smith. Both bullets took effect and he died instantly. Reid was dangerously wounded. Inside of ten minutes all the lights in town were turned out. Everybody thought it was going to be a fight to a finish. The law abiding people grab- bed their guns and gathered In the middle of the street. They appointed a new City Marshal. Then in squads and with guns cocked they encircled the town to round up the outlaws. An armed committee of twenty-five citizens commcnced their work on the inside to take the balance of the erim- inals dead or alive, \ When Soapy’s gang saw the deter- mination of the people they quit, and all were captured but one. He was the thief who stole Stewart’s gold dust, A special squad was detailed to root him out of his hiding place. He will have hard work to escape. The gang has promised to tell where he 1z and to glve up the dust provid- ing the committee will not hang him. The law and order party fee! highly elated over the succes i s work. Assurances of protection have been made to the miners and traveling public. Soapy Smith, the wead leader of this terrorizing gang, was born at Camilla, Georgia, 48 He has a brother 4 e in Was J.P. COX. Y e s ad SKAGUAY, July 21.—The committee has held daily the killing of citizens’ ssions since apy” Smith, and up to the time the Farallon left had suc- ceeded & Skaguay of mneariy all of its objectionable characters. A number of suspects are still in charge of the committee. United States Dep- been charged attempting to ect of duty an mey, and is under $5000 bonds appear fore the Grand vy in Sitka next November. Nine others have also been committed and taken to Sitka on the steamer. . Captain Yeatman of the United States army, with a detachment of s0l- diers, is in Skaguay anrd was contem- plating putting the town under mili- tary rule, fearing that summary pun- ishment would be administered, but finally accepted the assurance of . the committee that all persons in their charge would be given an Impartial hearing. The town still remains in the control of the citizens’ committee. After the burial of “Soapy” Smith the committee took charge of his prem- ises and effects and a search of the former resulted In the finding of the sack of dust stolen from Stewart. The sack was found in a trunk in a build- ing at the rear of Smith's saloon. Near- ly all of the $2775 stolen was recovered. It was rumored that other evidences of foul play and robbery were found, but the committee will not make any- thing public until it has finished its work. When the Faralion left everything was quiet. Saloons were closed day and night. The committee has been petitioned by saloon keepers to reopen and were willing to give a guarantee that thelr houses would be kept in first-class order, but their request has not yet been granted. R S § to the antecedents of Soapy Smith, upon whose grave the earth of Skaguay’s cemetery is vet fresh, little is generally known, and that little is not im- portant. He first reached fame while operating in Denver, where he com- bined with rare skill the vocations of thief, gambler and politiclan. From the last he derived the pull whereby he was enabled safely to pursue the others. At one time he was a power in the Colorado city, and no crime in which he engaged could keep him in jail for more than a few moments. He would be arrested at midnight for a serious offense, and after an early breakfast be on the street as gay as a lark super- intending a primary with a view to purifying municipal government, chat- ting with policemen, his air being that of condescension, or showing a visitor from, the country the inutility of guess- ing which walnut shell had a pea un- der it. Nothing could embarrass him. His quality .of cheek has never been and this same quality on oc- me a reckless courage. His Skaguay was a fitting end, but tardy, very tardy. To be truthful it becomes necessary to dispel one illusion concerning Smith. He was not an educated man. On the contrary, he was ignorant. Far from being a master of French and Spanish, he never more than half conquered plain English. He was a plausible talker, as many learned by an exper- ience which cost them all the coin they had available when his dulcet tones wooed them to his den, but his gram- mar was hardly up to the gambling room average. However, had he pos- sessed a moral nature which would have kept his talents from going awry he might have been a leader of men, for wherever he happened to.be there gathered about him ruffians and scoun- drels who looked upon him as master and faithfully brought to him the spoil of their raids on the unwary. For these scurvy chaps he was always ready to fight with pistols or to put up bail. For in his peculiar way Soapy was always true to his friends. His selection of friends was bad. There is not a trick known to confi- dence men in which Soapy was not ex- pert. He had practiced them all, had won thousands, and, unless he acquired new habits in Alaska, frittered it all away. His delight In spending money was as great as his joy in stealing it to expend. Not only was he generous, but having won a large stake he in- variably made straight for a faro game and, as he expressed it, blew it all in. Sometimes he was lucky,and then he would say gleefully: “Boys, I win a thousand lagt night off old Bell. Have a drink with me.” What was not ex- hausted in treating the crowd, in loans to others who hadn't “win out,” was sure to get to Bell's sooner or later. In his earller Denver days Soapy was not flush. When he did not have the means to play bank he would buy a bar of laundry soap, borrow a few twenty dollar bills and proceed to re- coup. It was by this he got the name which has out-lasted him. He would cut the soap into minature squares, wrap the pleces in tissue paper, and standing on the street corner display !hf lot in an open satchel held on a tripod. The public would be invited to purekase ‘“‘Dental soap, the finest preparation for the teeth ever com- pounded; good also to soften the skin, .polish the nails and warranted not to harm a child.” Three pieces of this in- valuable adjunct to the toilet could be had for half a dollar. gra; buyer. K is ket hen he would take from his pm’: £ :‘ne of the borrowed twenties, unwrap a plece of the soap, enclose it in the e i o v, and captured a single piece of money, yet the crowd would not stop trying as long as the soap lasted. Soapy would have enough to keep him amus and as a rule he held himself above it. He much preferred quicker returns. "HE DIED WITH HIS BOOTS ON" They ascertained that the boast was well founded, and they kept hold of the miner. When they had him workably drunk they accused him of lying, claring a disbelief in the all that he had a cent on deposit. The miner becoming indignant offered to Soapy’'s keen ¢ eyes would scan the throng for a sight that he bec had a keen but At first there would be no response. the gang divided the booty. only But this man Soapy w He would give money to delighted to shower it upon friends. One time he met a new paper man on the streets of Den The Jjournalist in his pursuit of his calling had frequent occasion to call the confidence man a thief, but Soapy known to By this time S heightened by th tongue. Nobody d'at faro for a night. But this scheme seemed to him petty, been It shot at man te to work a rus- He started was more to his let was continually on the lookout of his numerous dupe: & clined to take a shot at him. of being a coward. let reached the proper spot. e to face heavy odds, and with dressed carelessly, spoke quietly. It was only when there was a victim in He ye. He lest one be in- But he ame interesting. wandering e: might . ¢ e Det that his word and his paper were had all the honor of the gambler, a money, ffg'“"“l‘n;‘e’;d,:;‘":\‘.‘mfidmr‘:plo‘;\i L’;Aéd‘,““sl”su gy e nge quality hard to define. A thiet B oDl e ¥ 1ot Taviting the ‘the stalkes tosethep:with & checls for by instinct and training, his 1 O U s ey o hick out the pieces they $5000 placed in ‘the safe. The miner was good for its face, If he borrowed P tained the bills. Of course kept on drinking until he had reached $100, saying he would pay it at 11 | o o fcuity in doing this. the stage of being paralyzed, when he o'clock next day, at the hour he would i e “Mn{m' would be aroused, and was tucked in bed. The sun be at the appointed spot with the jionn qunery ‘here buyers were tum- in the heavens before he awol money, even if he had to rob somebody L i ithe 1t Haart st oors ni batore i OBtAI (6 Thitae from the time g e e Zat ot Soapy or some of his pals were at the Soapy reached the years of manhood satehel, the trlck camme o ody ever did bank. The first. check presented wag there is no probability that he ever It's an old \rl(‘é(, bu_t n%hn " packages the one for $5000 and it was promptl¥ earned honestly so much as a cent. it g0 well as Soapy. Ahe DAy cashed. When the miner awoke he w Pictures of Smith show that at the which stiould shaye [had Ane ey indienant,: but heygal nothing by time of his death he wore a beard. simply didn’t have it. Nobody this beyond a compromise. Soapy and When the star bunko artist of Denver a mustache, and the face appearance of st impression was e smooth of his ever accused Soapy He had shot and v times before a bul- He did not tie for a purse of money. e 2 : strictly professional unriffied mein, he took a gambler's 5 i . -very robbing wed this in a stric professiona f . he tod . 365;;211';(1;&1‘:‘-;0:?1!5‘,‘:‘:-‘r);.f;. The games light and never manifested the.slight- chances. “Anybody who had known 0 s, but est d feeling. m could easily imagine him as riding appeared a.suri‘,'n,f‘fl.d")‘F\rz,b‘i,a‘{p\- Had a _ “Hello, Dick” he remarked. “Come against the throng gathered to rebuke u;x?nc‘;”n; A vinning, for cards were in and have a hat with me.” him and his kind, and if he knew the NN “Soapy” Smith on His Way to Round Up His Gang and Break Up the Vigilance Committee. From a Photograph Taken for The Sunday Call. shots he himself mark, no do just as he passed Then he went stacked and the most ingenious de- Vices used for skinning patrons. If any visitor showed a disinclination to play he was sold a gold mine which never existed, induced to invest in fictitious stock. As a last resort he was quietly “touched” and thrown without unnec- essary violence Into the street. But one day Denver had a spasm of virtue, and concluding that Soapy had flourished too long began to insist that the police drive him away.. He went to a suburb, but the city extended so as to embrace the suburb, and Soapy had to look for other fields. He found one, and is buried in it. . Once the Smith gang got hold of a miner who-had boasted of being able to write an acceptable check for $5000. y happened to have met in front of a hat and furnishing store. “You don’t owe me hats,” Dick responded, but Scapy insisted. The hat purchased, and then Smith re- marked that the reporter was wearing a rather shabby overcoat. before, he was insistent, and Dick asked an ex- planation. “It's just thfs w: ' said Soany. win out a counle of hundred soap. It's in my clothes right now. on my way to Cliff Bell's to play bank and tryin’ to spend it before I get there, for that old son-of-a-gun will get every cent I don’t manage to drop between here and his — game.” Soapy's personality was not attrac- tive. He was hardly up to medium size, He even went so The Government leader was killed scattered before t! lace. It will be long see another like the moment of his arrival there record was one of crime and violence. Meeting of the fired had touched the bt he felt a gleam of joy over. to Alaska, and from his far as to organize his chosen thugs into a‘military company and offer their services to the country. thanked him, but did not accept, and the company stayed in the far north to plunder until the and the subordinates he wrath of the popu- before the world shall Soapy, one so un- scrupulous, so brazen, so despicable, yet brave and loyaltohis “friends.” 2 H.J ) 2% Gathering of the Vigilance Committee at Skagway on the Day Stewart Was Robbed and “Soapy” Smith Was Killed at the Head of His Gan From a Photograph Taken for The Sunday Cell. g-