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Show A FIRST. CUSS JOURNALIST. Winifred Sweet, of The San Francis. Examiner, and Her M mexll WW Correspondence OAN FRAKCJSCO, July to T1, . . trotting exploit, of NeVe Bandit Bisland have made the names of tS if ,n?1S? 13 a little woma who. if less widely known, is none the le active in darmg expedients and quite a. , Wtoifred Sweet was born in Chicago tweuty-three years ago. Her father was Gen. B. J. Sweet in the late war and was appointed pension agent at Chicago by President Grant during his tetterm At his death his daughter Ada Sweet, while but twenty years old office fath6r'S 8uccessor w the T5V. -1 . For eleven years, until requested to step down and out by Commissioner Black, during the Cleveland administration, administra-tion, she held tho position. Her refusal to resign made her famous. Winifred is tli youngest and, I believe, the only sister of ex-Pension Agent Ada Sweet. Her debut in journalism was in Chicago a little over two years ago. She wrote some stories for The Chicago Tribune over the name "Columbine." Her first regular engagement was with The New York Truth. In August of last year Bhe came to San Francisco in search of employment, and took with her letters of introduction to the big boss of one of the big dailies of this city. This gentleman informed her that he would not have a woman employed in his office for anything; that "the coast" had not degenerated to a sufficient degree de-gree to give desk room to any woman in a newspaper sanctum. But Miss Sweet was not entirely crushed by this unpromising unprom-ising outlook. . Sho went to another office of-fice and proposed to do some work for the paper if permitted. She was given some little encouragement, and submitted submit-ted a story which was accepted. In a few days a flower show came on, and she was assigned to "do" it for the paper. pa-per. She did it to the satisfaction of the managing editor, and was soon given a desk and regular assignments in the local room. When she had gained a footing and inspired some degree of confidence she began to divulge some rather daring schemes in the sensation line. Her first exploit in this direction was to answer an advertisement for ballet girls. Sho joined a ballet in a spectacular play at the Grand Opera house, and turned in some racy reading as the result. , , WINIFRED SWEET. Rumors of bad management in the receiving re-ceiving hospital were rife, but positive proof was wanting. "Annie Laurie," for such was the name Miss Sweet had chosen, decided to test tho matter. ' She dressed herself up in shabby genteel clothes, and going into a crowded street fell in a voluntary fit. Sho was duly picked up and carted off to tho receiving hospital. She says the treatment effectually effectu-ally cured her of fits for the future. The papers were all filled with pathetic descriptions de-scriptions of the poor and friendless maiden maid-en who had fallen in the street and lodged in the hospital. When the reporters called to get the case she could not suppress sup-press laughter, and had' to feign hysterics hyster-ics in order to conceal her shamming. When the stately matron remarked, When the stately matron remarked, "Thare is a renorther, and we must kape him away from the facts or he will be afther making a column of it, so he will," she had to summon her wit3 to keep a straight face. She was made to drink a hot mustard decoction to remove re-move the poison which the wise doctor declared she had taken with suicidal intent. in-tent. Her recovery followed in due time, and after her release a reporter for a rival paper sought her home to interview inter-view her about her hospital experience. In the interview sho posed as the friend of "poor Annie Myers" who had been in the hospital. ' The story she gave that reporter unfolded un-folded a tale whose lightest breath made "each particular hair stand on end like quills upon the fretful porcupine," as it were, and awakened such interest in the "poor girl" that sho was flooded with letters of sympathy and gifts1 of money and clothing from kind hearted women. But when her story was printed a sensation was aroused. The governor of the fitate telegraphed to have the doctor doc-tor dismissed pending investigation, and when the investigation was made he was bounced for brutality. Next she obtained letters and passports, and went to visit the leper island of Molokai, in the Hawaiian group. Here she was the first and only woman who ever set foot on that accursed land ex-cert ex-cert some half dozen Sisters of Mercy, whose lives are spent there as nurses to the suffering 1,200 lepers upon whose life the sun of hope has forever set. Here she found no startling episode. Only sorrow, deep and dark, gathered around the victims of the vile disorder. But her story of the place was a graphic and iffiS& from the lepers' colony col-ony she resumed the every day work of socW editor and reporter. Her last Xenturewasin joining the alvataon Army, and in h.-ilelujah bonnet she went to the jail with an armful of Wax Crys and a tambourine. She peddJea Vfll Crys to the i.risoners and took notes while the captains shouted and prayed, and her story was gsd |