 Judging from the articles he published, he seems to have begun as a featured sports writer, with such articles as "Cock Fight Draws Out Millionaires"  Beginning about 1904 his byline begins to appear frequently in the "Sunday World" and "Sunday World Magazine" on investigative articles such as "New York's Smiling Army of Factory Girls", "A Night With a Tenderloin 'Cop'", "A Day in the Hotel Astor Kitchen".Although Smith's most famous work is the poem "Evolution", according to Brown, Smith also wrote short stories, and a novel, "On the Pan Handle", that were well received at the time.Gardner was unable to verify any of this and doubts the novel and poems existed, except perhaps for a single poem, "Bessie McCall of Suicide Hall", which was reprinted in a 1907 issue of "Pandex of the Press".