The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-27


OF the gay, and notorious at the old Globe
ball room as one of the widest of the
dancers. It was during the flush times of
the Crescent City, when money was plen-
utul and morals were at low ebb, and
when amid the feVers that then ragged
there, the universal motto was: "A short
life but merry one." 1t was a short life
Tor Smith, who died of the yellow fever
year after his marriage, leaving wild
ow OF 81 with nothing in the world. New
orleans, lively as it then was, was too
tame for the widow. She drifted down to
south America, and when the discovery
OF gold in California started the wild rush
70 the Pacific coast, Fanny Smith was
among the first pioneers. She fitted into
the wild civilization of the mining camps
and was the belle of Sacramento. She was
the mistress of RUDE Raines, who ran
the biggest gambling saloon in Sacra-
mento, Ell Dorado, while she was the head
OF dance house, the Palace. Fanny
RalneS, as she was now known, was per-
maps as desperate and as quick with her
gun as any man in California. She was
unfortunate in using 1t, however, for one
OF her first victims was Albert Putnam,
one of the most reputable citizens of Sac
ramento. 1t was at the time that the
law and order movement in California was
organizing, when the people of the Pacific
coast had grown tired of the crimes COM
mitted there, and of being ruled and dom
ineered over by gamblers, murderers and
blacklegS. Mr.. Putnam was one of those
who took lead in the movement for
peace and order, and when he was killed
by the mistress of one of the worst gam
blers in the town, the tragedy so stirred
public sentiment that there seemed every
probability that Fanny Raines, in spite
of her sex, would be lynched, but she
had friends in Sacramento, and, strange
to say, she ran across her missing sister
Sarah, there, who, after marrying men
named Swartout, Mccormack and Green,
was then living in California under the
alias of Leah DUEL. Her friends hurried
her aboard boat, got her away from
Sacramento before the lynchers could find
her, and she started for new fields, going
first to Acapulco, Mexico then to Panama,
where she met Abraham Hinckley of New
York, who was engaged in business there.
He was infatuated with the woman and
he took her to New York, where he mar
ried her, and she dropped the names Mi
nerVa Seymour and Fanny Smith and he
came Maria Hinckley. She enjoyed her
second marriage but a year. She visited
her husband in Panama, Travelled to Cuba
and other countries and finally wound M
in New Orleans, where she seemed to have
grown tired of married life, for she
brought suit for divorce and got it.
Then followed a curious episode in her
NE which was largely responsible for the
decision OF the court, giving her propePtv
to the Brown heirs Maria Hineklev. after
wandering around the world, and changing
her name at every place to which she
went, after going through the most re-
markable proceedings to cover UP her past
and lose her original name, returned to
Rome, o., her birthplace, after an alb
sence or thirteen years. She came back
as a respectable and well-to-do widow to
ind her mother dead. She built a hand
some and expensive monument over her
mothers grave, on which she had carved
an entire poem, written by herself Whetb-
er she was tired of her life of wandering
and adventure and wanted to settle down
to quiet, respectable life, no one ex-
cept her self could ever say She unfor-
tunately got into quarrel with her broth
er-in-law, AIcVey, whose wife got half her
succession. There were recriminations and
lawsuits in which Mrs. Maria Hinckley
was generally successful, but they so dis
gusted her with her family that she again
shook the dust from her feet and came
back to New Orleans, where she changed
her name and became Fanny Sweet
1t was just as the civil war broke upon
the country. Willis G. Stevens secured the
contract from the confederate government
to supply the trans-Mississippi department
with gunpowder. He was to buy it abroad,
and started for Europe, via Mexico as
New Orleans was then blockaded. He had
as partners in the business young Fred
Sweet and leading merchant of New Or
leans. After travelling through Texas the
merchant was surprised to find that Fred
was woman, in fact was Fanny Sweet,
who found male dress better suited to her
adventures, and who in after life went as
often in trousers as in pettcoats. The con-
federate agents got as far as the Rio
Grande. where Stevens was taken danger
ously i'll, and was nursed by Fanny Sweet.
The nursing did not seem to agree with
him, and when he died and Fanny came
into most of his property she was publicly
accused of numbering him; but in
t those times nosrts OF ors civil war the
pended, and although the charge of
murder was made repeatedly, Fanny
Sweet was never molested. She came hack
to New Orleans, said that Stevens was
largely indebted to her, brought suit
against his heirs. and secured a large mart
of his succession. From that time TO
her death Fanny Sweet never left
New Orleans. She became a part of its
criminal history. She built on the ia
nous shell road, just on the edge of the
city, a palatial mansion, surrounded bv
the handsomest gardens. There the Wild
est revelries went on, and the police were
frequently called on to restore order: hut
she had friends and influence and defied
all police regulations. Nothing afforded
her more satisfaction than to drive in a
handsome carriage through the city, dress
ed in male attire. firing her revolver in the
air. This, however, was mere trifling
and there were several more serious emil
sodes in her career at the shell road house
young man Of conspicuous family was
murdered in her garden, but the family
gladly hushed up the affair. Then.
young woman was killed there, and there
were whispers of Fanny's wild jealousy
and ungovernable temper and her quick
ness to use her gun, but II was during
period of the grossest police corruption
and no one cared to trifie with Fanny. and
the murder was never made public; 1t was
returned as a suicide.
Sixteen years ago Fanny Sweet. then
well beyond 50, further astonshed the
world by marrying the distinguished law
yer William II. Mills. The marriage
shocked Mills friends, but II seems 10
have been a happy one, for when he died
eleven years afterward, he left his entire
property to This beloved wife," whom he
styles Fanny Minerva Seymour Hinck-
ley" After that Rachel Brown, Miner
va Seymour Fanny Smith, Fanny Ralnes
Maria Hinckley. Fred Sweet FANNY
Sweet, OF Mrs. Mills led quiet life, sooth-
ed her sorrows with opium, became blind
and finally died OF starvation lneistlpo 81