could not pay, and was therefore held in jail for an indefinite length of time. She succeeded in getting a judgment from the District of Columbia supreme court, declaring the fine illegal, and, as a commissioner in chancery, was afterwards instrumental in setting many a poor convict at liberty, and finally broke up the custom altogether.
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MARRILLA M. RICKER.
She was one of the assistant counselors in the famous Star Route cases, following those prolonged trials, which occupied the court for more than six months, with deepest interest, until the final acquittal of all the defendants in that ever memorable contest. She made a test case on a rule established by the district commissioners, under the old Sunday law closing barber-shops on the Sabbath day, having a prominent colored barber as a client, in which she pleaded that shaving was necessary work, and that her client had been employed to shave President Arthur. The Sunday closing was sustained both by the court below and the court above. Her legal work has been almost invariably on the side of criminals, for whom she has the broadest charity, and for the oppressed, spending her means for them freely, and employing counsel when not able to attend to the cases herself. She was the pioneer in her attempt to vote for electors in Dover, N. H., in 1870, and to fortify the effort prepared a constitutional argument for the selectmen of the town. She also offered to vote at the city election in Dover in 1891. She was one of the electors for New Hampshire on the equal rights ticket on which Belva A. Lockwood ran for president in 1884. She opened the New Hampshire bar to women in July, 1890, her petition having been filed in December, 1889. That petition cites the rules for the admission of attorneys of ten States of the Union. Apparently bold and always progressive, she is in reality very timid, and always addresses the court with much shyness and trepidation, as if doubting her own judgment. She is an uncompromising Republican and, as she says, "always votes the straight Republican ticket." She went to California in 1887, and worked for the Republican ticket in 1888, speaking on the tariff, and writing many letters on that subject for papers throughout the country. She visited Iowa in 1892 in the interests of the Republican party. She is very loyal, and while abroad always carried with her the American flag as a part of her passport. In the winter of 1890-91, in Washington, she conducted a class in "Wimodaughsis."
RIGGS, Mrs. Anna Rankin, temperance reformer, was born in Cynthiana, Ky. Her parents removed to Illinois when she was two years of age. Her maiden name was Anna Rankin. The education of the children was carried on at home, until each child could walk the long distance to the public school, and Anna was eleven years old when er progress demanded and secured better educational advantages in a distant school. She was her widowed mother's right hand and the sharer of all her cares during the years that followed Mr. Rankin's early death. While still in her teens she became the wife of Mr. Riggs. When the Civil War broke out, Mr. Riggs went to the front with one of the many regiments from Illinois. His active service continued to the close of the war, and a captain's commission was the reward of his bravery. The young wife beguiled those years with study, and in 1864 she spent eight months with her husband in field and camp in the southwestern department. Failing health banished her from those exciting scenes, and she returned to Bloomington. Ill., to resume her studies as her strength returned. Eighteen years she lived in that city. Bloomington is the seat of the Illinois Wesleyan University, and when the woman's chair of English literature was created, she aided in securing an endowment that made it perpetual in the institution. The young ladies' boarding-hall was one of the objects for which she labored. She left Bloomington for Oregon in the winter of 1882. When the temperance crusade swept over the country, she was watching by the bed of a dying sister. It was not until a later period she was free to join the white-ribbon army, in whose ranks she has won so many honors. When the "Union Signal" was struggling for existence, she was one of the board of managers, active in the successful efforts that won a place for that child of the crusade among leading journals. When she went to Oregon, Portland had no home for destitute women and girls, no rescue station to shelter those lost in the dark haunts of a city, and the intelligence office at the Woman's Christian Temperance Union headquarters was so often appealed to by that unfortunate class that in 1887 the Portland " Union," under the auspices of Mrs. Riggs and a few noble women, opened an industrial home. The institution was kept afloat by great exertions and personal sacrifice, until it was merged into a refuge home and incorporated under the laws of the State. Its indefatigable president has twice presented its claims in the halls of the legislature, and secured handsome appropriations for its maintenance. She has also started a fund to secure a permanent home for the institution. Six years ago she was elected president of the Oregon Woman's Christian Temperance Union In 1891 she started the "Oregon White Ribbon." which has been a success. A prominent feature of her work in Oregon has been her school of methods, which has been an inspiration to the local unions in their department work. In November. 1891, she was a delegate to attend the World's and national conventions in Boston. She has recently been elected president of the International
