The Soapy Smith Legend
Smith’s legend was created within hours of his death. The Rev. John A. Sinclair, who had despaired of redeeming the living man, wrote and published a popular sermon that twisted one of Soapy’s favorites sayings: “The way of the transgressors is hard – TO QUIT.” Sinclair left off the two words Smith always added, and made his burial sermon a lesson on the martyrdom of Frank Reid. The story told in the Skaguay News on July 9, 1898 and newspapers throughout the country was that one brave man had sacrificed himself to slay a vicious con man – the con king of Skagway – in order that Skagway could be freed of all crime.
Such a popular sort of folktale could not die. It was retold over and over. By 1907, ten years after the founding of Skagway, aspiring politician, Chris Shea, authored a booklet using photographs taken by Sinclair and professional Skagway photographers Theodore Peiser and Case and Draper. He called it, after a collage of photographs, The “Soapy” Smith Tragedy. This booklet formed the basis of the legend as it grew into more than a hundred retellings in the decades that followed.
What emerged by the 1950s was an American Robin Hood, who took from the rich miners and gave to the poor widows, orphans, dogs, and criminals who lived by their wits. Smith, the anti-hero, was the loyal friend who stood by his men, outwitted the stuffy reformers and conventional citizens and lives on as the rascally King of the Con Men.
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