Biography Of Soapy Smith

Study the brief biography of Soapy Smith and tell which of the two organizations is used.
Today many people complain about the prevalence of gangs and criminals, but in 1800s in many parts of theUnited States this was a bigger problem, and there were often no police to provide protection. Those were the days when the American frontier was moving more and more westward. Outlaws were commons, buta few of them become famous, and some have been celebrated in son and legend. What do you think these outlaws were like? Heartless murderer? Brave heroes who helped the poor? Or simply con men (slangfor swindlers), trying to get rich by tricking others? Read the biography of one of the man in this selection. Since, as they say, “truth is stranger than fiction,” you might be surprise by what youread.

Soapy Smith
Jefferson Randolph “Soapy “Smith probably ranks as Skagway best-known character from the gold rush days. Certainly, he was its most notorious con man. It is said that at theheight of the gold rush. Smith and his gang virtually controlled the town, a reign hat ended in a shoot-out with one of the Skagway leading citizens, Frank Reid.
Smith was born in Georgia in 1860 toparents who were both members of prominent Southern families. Smith spent most of his formative years in Texas, where his family moved in 1870s. After his father, a lawyer, fell on hard times, young Jeffwas forced to earn a living as a delivery boy and as a runner for a hotel, a job in which he rustled up customers and thus discovered his natural gift for speech.
When still in his teens, Smith gota job as a trail hand on cattle drives, and spent several years drifting about the West. He eventually learned sleight-of-hand tricks and made a living in the mining camps with gambling games such aspeas-under-the-shell game. He acquired his nickname “soapy” from a game which involved hiding large bills in bars of soap.
Smith, who was generally opposed to violent methods, graduated to larger...