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Arch Desperado Dead.Soapy Smith Laid Low by City Surveyor Frank H. Reid.Citizens Rise in Their Might and Rout the Thieves and Thugs to their Holes.REID THEThe best days work that was ever done for Shaguay, was done yesterday evening by City Engineer F. H. ReiJ, when he shot and instantly killed Soapy Smith. But Frank Reid made an awful sacrifice, for he lies now at the point of death with a rifle ball through his abdomen that may prove fatal.It was about nine o’clock in the evening when the shooting took place. Smith, who was well under the influence of liq-our and worked up to a frenzy, left his h use 01 6th avenue with a forty-five j calibre winchester over his arm. He went almost on a run down State street, until he came to tte wharf, where Reid was on I guard. The men had had some words ! earlier in the day, and as soon as Reid saw I Smith coming, he knew scmebodv would get hurt. Smith ran up to Iteid and began swearing at him ; hi then struck it him with his rifle. Reid grabbed at the ban el ! of the gun with one hand, and drew his revolver with the other. But Smith jerked the rifle away, struck Reid once with it, cutting his arm. and as he raised the gun again Reid pulled the trigger of his pistol, hit the cap snapped. Before he I could pull again, Smith raised the bar'd of the rifle and fired. Again Reid grabbed ! the barrel and at the same time shot twice j in quick succession. Either ball would have killed Smith instantly.There were two shots fired into Smith. One shot hit him in the thigh, and the other went into the right sideo? the chest, crossing the body to the left, and going through the heart.Smith fell dead before the smoke had cleared away and Reid at the same time f II. A crowd, which had followed Smith, closed in on the men. As soon as they found that Reid was alive, some run for a stretcher, and soon a dozen willing men were carrying him toward his house two blocks away. Before they arrived there, Drs. Moore, Cornelius, and Bryant were on the scene and it was decided to take him at once to the hospital. The men took him up again, and got as far as 5th avenue, when it was decided that the hos* pital was too far away. Some one ran down the street to make a place ready in a hotel, and Mr. Brogan gladly placed the Occidental at the disposal of the messenger, and told the doctors to take the house.Mr. Keid was carried up stairs to a room and in a few moments the physician had his clothes off and found that the bullet had entered the lower right abdomen, and came out at the lower end of the back bone. They immediately began to stimulate the sufferer, who was in very great pain, and to give him morphia.The trouble that ended in the shooting affray, began yesterday at noon. J. D. Stewart, one of the returned Klondlkers, was rolled and robbed of a sack containing about $3,000 In nuggets and dusts. Mr. Stewart says that he had gone Into Smith’s place looking for a companion. He walked out in the back yard, with the bag swung on his shoulder, and was looking at the eagle. He found out there three men, who, from the description given of them afterwards, are supposed to have been Joe Bowers, an old man named Tripp, and another man called Dick. The three men began to play monte, Mr. Stewart says, and finally began to scuffle. He took no part whatever in the game. In a moment or two he found them brushing up against him, and before he knew it, two of the men grabbed him, and the third snatched the bag from him anJ ran. The two men still held held him until the third had got well away. Then they too ran in a different direction. Tripp is said to have been the one who got the bag. Stewart’s story is corroborated by two reputable witnesses, a man and woman, who saw the whole proceedings from adjoining buildings.The alarm was raised at once and the marshal was notified. Marshal Taylor told those who gave the alarm, that Ifthey would keep quiet for a time he would get the men and the money, but In a few minutes the marshal started up Broodwayw:th a carpenter to oversee some work heHERO OfFrom Saturday’s Daily, was doing, and the men felt that he was not very mach Interested in the case. In an hour the whole town was alarmed and excited. JuJge Sehlbrede was telephoned for, and he promised to come over from Dyea as soon as he coutd get a boat. He telephoned back asking that every precaution be taken to aiay any agitation, so that he could be free to act when he came.Consequently the newspaper men got together and decided that tiie best interests of the town would be best served by tlieir remaining silent on the matter until Judge Sehlbrede could act.Between 2 o’clock, when Judge Sehlbrede was sent for, and 6 o’clock when he arrived, at least a dozen men went to Soapy Smith and tried to get him to disavow the robbery and give up the men. But to every appeai he said that no one had been robbed, that the man had entered a gambling game and had lost his money fairly. So he declined to do anyming about the matter, finally making the excuse that if Stewart had not “hollered” he would feel like going out and getting him a piece of the money.Judge Sehlbrede sent for Smith as soon as lie got in town. At 6 o’clock Smith went to the marshal’s office where the Judge was.They talked the whole matter over in the presence of Marshal Taylor and a representative of the Daily alaskan, but to every appeal Smith made the same an-swei—.he boys who had the money won it in a fair game and they should keep it. He also said he had a hundred men who would stand behind him and see that they were protected. The judge finally told him he could not afford to stand up for a gang of theives; but he almost screamed —“Well, Judg^, declare me in with the thieves. I’ll stay with them, and with that he passionate' / beat the table with his fist and left the room.Again Judge Sehlbrede sent for him, an hour later, and talked with him. But it was always the same. He would do nothing and “would stand by the boys. He did offer to give up one of the men, but he made his surrender conditional upon ceatain men being appointed to guard him. Judge Sehlbrede declined to submit to any conditions and lie called upon those who were with him to know whether, if he issued warrants, they would arrest Smith and his whole gang. The Judge was told that every man of them would be brought in. He said he wanted the men, if he issued the warrants, alive if possible, but dead if necessary. And this plan was in preparation when Smith was seen running down State street to his death with a rifle on his shoulder.Along about the middle of the afternoon while perhaps twenty men were standing on the comer of Broadway and Fifth avenue discussing the affair, Smith passed through the crowd. Some one used his name and suggested something about his being such a coward that he had to have a gang of men with him. He heard the remark and turned around on the crowd, with an oath, threatening to litter the street with corpses. No one defied him, but from that moment Smith’s davs In Skaguay were numbered by the citizens in that crowd. They knew that Smith had to be killed, driven out or presented with a quit claim deed to the town. That he himself thought something of the same thing Is shown by his exclamation to Denny Brogran, who was trying to argue with him, “Well, I am about due to kill a man and I have lived long enough myself anyway.Inside half an hour from the time the shooting took place, two hundred citizens were organized into a company. Judge Sehlbrede appointed Captain Tanner special officer and Tanner at once organized his men. He had every house suspected of harboring one ot the Smith gang raided and searched, and guards were put on every wharf along the bay, on the hillsides, and the railroad people were notified of the occurrence, set guards along the north of the city and on the bridges withHOURa view to round up the remnant of the Kang.At 1 o’clock this morning Frank Reid was taken to the Union hospital and at 5 o’clock Dr. Whiting, the railroad surgeon, who had been sent for the night before, operated to locate the course of the bullet, and the damage done by the wound. Dr. Whiting afterward came down town and said that he believed that the intestines and bladder were not hurt, but that the abdominal cavity was perforated and a peritonitis might ensue, which would be fatal. The pelvis or hip bone was shattered and he took out a dozen pieces of splintered bone. Dr. Whiting thinks that though Reid is a very badly injured man he has a chance to recover, though he must, under the most favorable conditions, take a long time to get well.After Reid had been attended to Judge Sehlbrede went down to the wharf to view Smith’s body. He placed a guard of five men over It, and ordered them to remove It to the undertaking establishment, which was done. Judge Sehlbrede held the inquest today.^ The town alter the shooting last night was nearly wild. All sorts of rumors were afloat and more shootings, lynchings and the like were talked about, but presently Captain Tanner showed so conclusively that he was the proper man for the leadership of the men that quiet prevailed and eve.'y one felt that the worst was over.Through It all two sentiments were In the ascendency, one of sorrow for Frank Reid, who was the hero of the hour, and the other of heartfelt thankfulness that the city had been rid of its one blighting factor, and one of the most desperate and daring lawbreakers of modem times.
Newspaper Details
Skagway Daily Alaskan
Skagway, Alaska, US
Mon, Jul 11, 1898
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 17 Jun 2024
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