The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-22


 dust to the gang. They had ca1oled
 nm into believing that their sole de-
 sire in life was to see the appearance of
 real Klondike dust; they said they
 wanted to see if it differed in appear
 ance from the dust of other mining To-
 calites
 stewart unwittingly went to the mer-
 chants safe, where he had deposited
 his clean-up on arriving in town, and returned with the bag, containing three thousand dollars.
 The gang circled around him asking questions, Suddenly one fellow from
 behind reached over and grabbed the sack; another struck him a blow for
 trying 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 realization of their position
 and duty in the protection of life and
 property. The merchants at once called
 a meeting to organize vigilance com mittee to order Soapy Smith and all such characters out of town. The city 'S't9iieti l9 aetiI lO SlOOu oll tiiS "divvy" with the gang, and would not interfere or serve papers for their ar | rest.
 While this mass meeting of law abiding 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. Soapy was swearing as he went along that he would scatter that crowd, and teach them not to interfere in his business Hundreds of the stricken peo- pie rushed to their homes to arm then- selves.
 The first man Soapy met at the door of the meeting was MT. Reid, 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 Smith 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 fight to finish. The law abiding people grabbed their guns and gathered in the middle of the street. They appointed a new city marshal. Then in squads and with guns cooked they encircled the town to round up the outlaws. An armed committee of twenty-five citi- zens commenced their work on the in- side to take the balance of the criminals dead or alive When Soapys gang saw | the determination of the people, they 1 quit, and all were captured but one. He was the thief who stole Stewards | gold-dust. A special squad was de- l tailed to root him out of his hiding | place. He will have hard work to es- cape.
 After the burial of 'Soapy' Smith the committee took charge of his premises
 and effects, and search of the former resulted in the finding of the sack of | gold dust stolen from Stewart. The | sack was found in a trunk in a build | ing at the rear of Smiths saloon. Nearly all of the $2,775 was recovered. i It was rumored that other evidences of | foul play and robbery were found, but 1 the committee did not make anything | public until it had finished it's work One time he met newspaper man on l the streets of Denver. The journalist | i'll the pursuit of his calling had fre- quent occasions to call the confidence ! man a thief, but Soapy viewed this in a l strictly professional light, and never manifested the slightest hard feeling.
 Hello, Dick" he, remarked Come in and have hat with me-" They happened to have met in front
 of a hat and furnishing store. You don't owe me any hats Dick | responded, but Soapy insisted. The
 hat was purchased, and then Smith re- marked that the reporter was wearing
 a fratfer shabby overcoat. As before, I he was insstent, and Dick asked an ex- | planation.
 Its just this way,' said Soapy. ''I win out a couple of hundred selling l soap. It's in my clothes right now.
 I'm on my way to Cliff Bells to play l bank, and I'm tryin' to spend it before
 I get there, for that old son-of-a-g gun will get every cent I don't manage to l drop between here and his - game.H
 Soapys personality was not attrac- tive. He was hardly up to medium
 size, dressed carelessly, spoke quietly.
 It was only when there was a victim
 in sight that he became interesting. l He had a keen but wandering eye. He
 was continually on the lookout lest one | of his numerous dupes might be in-
 clined to take a shot at him. But he had all the honor of a gambler, a | strange quality, hard to define. A thief by instinct and training, his o U was good for it's face. If he borrowed
 hundred dollars, saying he would pay it at eleven o'clock next day, at the | hour he would be at the appointed spot
 with the money, even if he had to roh
 somebody to obtain it. In fact, from
 the time Soapy reached the years of
 manhood there is no probability that he
 ever earned honestly so much as cent
 Chicago Inter-Ocean.