RIGA 



501S 



RIIS 



in mechanism of all magazine rifles and is 

 effective at long ranges. The Boers of South 

 Africa used the Mauser in the war of 1899-1902 

 with great effect, and the Mauser now used by 

 the German army differs only in minor details 

 from the pattern then used. F.ST.A. 



Consult Ommundsen and Robinson's Rifles and 

 Ammunition; Askins 1 Rifles and Rifle Shooting. 



Related Subject*. The reader is referred to 

 list of articles in these volumes at end of article 

 ARMY, page 385. 



RIGA, rc'gah, for year second to Petrograd 

 among the Russian seaports along the Baltic, 

 is now the capital of the new republic of 

 Livonia. It lies on the Diina River, about ten 

 miles above the point where that stream emp- 

 ties into the Gulf of Riga (see colored map of 

 Europe, following page 2092). The river has 

 been canalized from the city to the sea, and is 

 navigable that distance for small boats; large 

 ocean steamers dock at the outer port of Ust- 

 Dvinsk, at the mouth of the river. The chief 

 disadvantage with which shipping must con- 

 tend is the fact that the harbor freezes over 

 about 127 days every year. Riga has excellent 

 railroad communication with Southern Russia; 

 water communication with the regions along the 

 Dnieper and the Volga is afforded by a system 

 of canals. Cereals, hides, skins and lumber are 

 included among the exports, and foodstuffs, 

 coal and manufactured goods make up the im- 

 ports. The city has a large number of manu- 

 facturing plants, the yearly output of which 

 approximates $30,000,000. 



Founded in 1201, Riga early attracted many 

 German settlers because of liberal regulations 

 in regard to trade. It still has a large German 

 population, and the old portion of the city 

 looks much like a typical German town of the 

 Middle Ages. In the suburbs, where the resi- 

 dential districts are found, the houses are 

 modern. Among numerous educational insti- 

 tutions are a polytechnical institute, a naviga- 

 tion school, a library with about 100,000 vol- 

 umes, and a city museum. Because it is the 

 key to the occupation of Petrograd, Riga has 

 suffered siege in various wars ; it was shelled by 

 the Germans in 1915, and was captured by 

 German troops, in September, 1917. They were 

 compelled to abandon the city after the war. 

 See WAR OF THE NATIONS. Population in 1913, 

 estimated, 334 500. 



RIGA, or LIVONIA, GULF OF, an inlet of the 

 Baltic Sea, about 100 miles long and seventy 

 miles wide (see colored map of Europe, facing 

 page 2097). The gulf never entirely freezes 



over, and along the coast the waters are navi- 

 gable for nine months of the year. The Diina, 

 on which the city of Riga (see above) is situ- 

 ated, is the largest river opening into the gulf. 



RIGGS, KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN (1859- ), 

 an American novelist and writer of juvenile 

 fiction, was born at Philadelphia, Pa. She was 

 educated at Abbot Academy, Andover, Mass., 

 and at the age of eighteen went to Los Angeles, 

 Cal., to teach. In 1878 she founded at San 

 Francisco the first free kindergarten on the 

 Pacific coast and two years later established in 

 that city the California Kindergarten Training 

 School. It was while engaged in this work that 

 she began her highly successful writing of sto- 

 ries for children. Her first book, The Birds' 

 Christmas Carol, appeared in 1888, and seems 

 to have increased in popularity year by year. 

 Among her other stories for young readers 

 should be mentioned The Story of Patsy, Marm 

 Lisa and Timothy's Quest, a book that made a 

 very strong appeal to children. All these books 

 were written for children, but in 1902 she began 

 to tell mature readers about children, in such 

 delightful stories as The Diary of a Goose Girl, 

 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Rose o' the 

 River and New Chronicles of Rebecca. Mrs. 

 Riggs has homes in New York and in Maine. 



Few authors have understood child life more 

 accurately than Mrs. Riggs or have written 

 about it with more sympathy and enthusiasm. 

 She has therefore made notable contributions 

 to juvenile education and literature in America. 

 Her books have the rare quality of not "talk- 

 ing down" to children, but instead they meet 

 the juvenile mind on its own level. The re- 

 sult is a form of literature that really leaves a 

 definite impression upon the child reader. It 

 was her original idea that teachers should be 

 trained for kindergarten work. 



RIGHT OF WAY. See EASEMENT. 



RIIS, rees, JACOB AUGUST (1849-1914), an 

 American journalist, author and social worker, 

 who was once called "America's most useful 

 citizen," was born at Ribe, Denmark. At the 

 age of twenty-one, after studying at the Ribe 

 Latin School, he emigrated to America, and for 

 six years was glad to get various employments, 

 such as construction camp work, carpentry, coal 

 mining, farm work and peddling. In 1877, after 

 suffering from actual poverty, he became re- 

 porter for the New York Tribune, and later 

 police reporter for the Sun, and in this capacity 

 grew thoroughly familiar with conditions in the 

 city's poorer section. His endeavors to effect 

 various reforms in the tenement houses and 



