The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-07
APSELLER AND OUTLAW .
Passing of a Noted Western
Gambler and Adventurer.
SMITH HAD MANY SCHEMES
Got Up an Airship Sensation and Reap
ed Rich Harvest Liber-
ally to the Needy and Eos
tered the Churches.

Il saw by the Sentinel the other
day." said a confidential man of a west
side wholesale house, that John Ka-
lam, who was in at the death of
'Soapy' Smith, is in Milwaukee having
his eyes treated. / should like to see
the man who would dare have called
him 'Soapy' Smith to his face" con-
tlnued the west slider, with a merry
twinkle in his eyes.
stander.
Did I know him. Well. 1 rather
guess, yes. l was in the book bust
ness in Denver, back in the sos. and
'Soapy' had his fleeing apartments
right alongside of my store, and let
me tell you he was one of the best of
neighbors. His name was Jefferson
Smith, and people had to call him
Jeff to avoid trouble
smith was an inveterate gambler
and before he opened his rooms he
used to play his soap game on the
street corners. You could always tell
when he was broke. He would appear
on the street with a gripsack that
opened flat on both sides, one of those
two-box-on- hinges sort of affairs and
in this he would have his soap, little
cylinders about an inch long, and hun
dreds of them, in the grip. He would
pick up one of the pieces of soap, re-
move the wrapper, place a S. or $40
bill next to the soap, replace the wrap
per, throw it back in the pile, give it
single stir up by running his hanGs
through the pile and giving them
turn over. Then he would sing out
Who will give me a dollar for a
pick?'
THE dollars would be thrust at him
from every direction and he would take
them in and the people, who had been
watching the operation and thought
they had a dead sure thing. would
make their selections. missing the
prize, of course. Then Soapy' would
say:
Gentlemen, you should have taken
this one and, picking up little cube
from the top, he would unroll the
wrapper, and there would be the so
bill. AS his finances recuperated he
would increase the prize to a $50 or a
500 bill. scatter 81 bills through the
heap and raise his price to SO a draw.
Some days he would take in thousands
of dollars at this game. Old, gray
haired business men and young fell
lows and all sorts of people would
they had a sure thing and take a
chance. I tried it myself but ! never
caught him, nor did any one else. 1t
was the slickest game ! ever went up
against.
After 'Soapy' had staked himself
with this game he would disappear
from the streets for months at a time.
He would sit in at a game of faro,
which was his favorite and if things
came his way he would stay right
there until the sign, This Bank Has
Suspended was put up.
THE soap game finally proved too
small for Smiths fertile brain, and as
sociating himself with a man named
Charles Burke they concocted one of
the cleverest swlndles ever attempted
in the country and had the proteC-
ton of the authorities. who We're their
innocent victims as well as the public,
in carrying it through.
"They leased a large park a few
miles out from Denver, advertised that
an airship would start from the park
for Chicago with bridal pair on
board on a certain day in 1889. The
billboards were covered with pictures
of the airship; an advertisement was
inserted in the papers offering a re-
ward of 500 for a pair who would be
married in the park and then take the
Continued on page 10)