“SOAPY ” SMITH 261

Smith's"? grave. You need not do the former, but you
will be sadly lacking in your duty if you do not do the
latter, as well as listen to his story and look at the photo-
graphs which will be shown you of the man as he lay dead,
stripped to the waist to show the bullet’s hole which killed
him. As far as I have been able to learn, his story is as
follows.

‘“Soapy Smith’? acquired his title because he was at
one time making vast wealth somewhere in the States
in some sort of a ‘‘ confidence game” in which cakes of
soap played an important part. When the Klondyke
Gold excitement started and men with heavy ‘‘ pokes"
(buckskin bags) of gold began to return, Soapy made
Skagway his headquarters, and soon had a nice gambling
den going. By degrees he gathered together a gang of
gamblers, gunmen, and all sorts of desperadoes who
terrorised the town. Ifa miner came into the town with
gold and was willing to lose it at the gambling tables, well
and good; if not, it was taken from him by force and he
was fortunate if he did not lose his life as well as his
gold. To such an extent did ‘‘ Soapy ’? dominate the town
that he actually had himself elected its mayor and just
ran the place to suit himself. Then followed a regular
orgy of robbery, violence, and murder, until the situation
was such that the town was not safe for any respectable
person even to pass through. At last, in desperation,
the law-abiding element decided to follow the old custom
which was in vogue in early days, and form a ‘‘ Vigilance
Committee.”’ This was done, and a meeting arranged to
be held in a freight shed at the end of a long wharf, where
they would be safest from molestation. A civil engineer
named Reed, an Englishman who hailed from Plymouth,
volunteered to act as a guard at the end of the wharf.
Of course it was not long before knowledge of the mecting
reached ‘‘ Soapy’s”’ ears, and seizing a Winchester rifle
he went down to break it up.

There are still living in Skagway a number of people who
were in the town at that time. Without exception they
all claim to have witnessed the proceedings, but no two of