674: 



OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (RIGHTON ROBERTS.) 



lion and Galatea, The Country Girl, A Dangerous 

 Game, The School for Scandal, Frou-Frou, and 

 L'Aventuriere. She was the first actress to pre- 

 sent in English a play on the subject of Napoleon, 

 and it is said that her success in this particular 

 had much to do with the renewed interest in 

 him in the United States. Josephine, Empress 

 of the French, adapted by William Harris, was 

 first presented by Rhea at Buffalo, Sept. 2 

 This play afforded her the best opportunities of 

 her career, and she played it almost continuously 

 until about two years before her death. She 

 played occasionally during that time The New 

 Magdalen, The Lady of Lyons, The Queen of 

 Sheba, and Nell Gwynn. Her last performance 

 was in Hagerstown. Md., April 2. 1898. 



Righton, Edward Corrie. English actor, born 

 in London in October, 1838; died there, Jan. 1, . 

 1899. He was the son of Thomas Collins Righton, 

 an artist. When fifteen years old he went on the 

 stage at Sadler's Wells Theater, and for several 

 seasons he played small parts. For a few years he 

 gave monologue entertainments in England and 

 the United States, and in 1871 he assumed the 

 management of The Court Theater, London. For 

 two years of his management he played with 

 success low comedy parts in a great number of 

 new plays. He subsequently appeared in many 

 of the London theaters, and was very success- 

 ful as Dogberry in Much Ado about' Nothing, 

 Tony Lumpkin in She Stoops to Conquer, Bob 

 Acres in The Rivals, and Touchstone in As You 

 Like It. During the season 1877-78 he managed 

 the Globe Theater, London, and produced the 

 successful plays Stolen Kisses and Dearer than 

 Life. Until 1881 he played with his own com- 

 pany in the provinces, and in that year re- 

 turned to London to play Mr. Parmenter Blake 

 in Pinero's Imprudence. In 1887 he became a 

 member of the Conway-Farren company. In 

 Beerbohm Tree's production of The Merry Wives 

 of Windsor, Sept. 13, 1888, he played* Parson 

 Evans. In the Lyceum production of The Dead 

 Heart, September, 1889, he played Toupet the 

 Barber. Oct. 16, 1890, he was again with Mr. 

 Tree at the Crystal Palace, playing Moses in 

 The School for Scandal. He contributed poems 

 to periodicals and wrote a play called Insurance 

 Money. His pen name w r as Corrie Burns. His 

 last appearance was May 24, 1899, when he re- 

 cited his own poem Just what I was when a Boy 

 at a hospital benefit. 



Ristich, Jovan, Servian statesman, born in 

 Kragujevatz in 1831; died Sept. 4, 1899. He 

 studied in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Paris, and on 

 his return to Servia became a clerk in the Min- 

 istry of the Interior, rose to the head of his de- 

 partment, and was sent by Prince Milosh in 1860 

 on a mission to Constantinople. He was diplo- 

 matic agent there in 1862 when the Turkish 

 garrison in Belgrade bombarded the town, and 

 conducted the negotiations that resulted in 1867 

 in the evacuation by the Turks of all the Servian 

 fortresses. This success made him so popular 

 that Prince Michael appointed him Prime Min- 

 ister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in a Con- 

 servative Cabinet, although he was a Liberal. 

 His speedy resignation increased his popularity, 

 and after the Prince's assassination in 1868 he 

 was appointed regent, with Blaznavatz and Ga- 

 vrilovich as co-regents, until Prince Milan should 

 attain his majority. He was the leading spirit 

 of the regency, especially after the death of Blaz- 

 navatz, and was the chief author of the Constitu- 

 tion of 1869, which was replaced in 1888 by a 

 Radical Constitution, and then put in force again 

 in 1864 by King Alexander after his coup d'etat. 



He obtained from the Sultan Abdul Aziz a recog- 

 nition of the hereditary rights of the Obrenovich 

 dynasty, thus paving the way for the subsequent 

 recognition of Servian independence. His AII-- 

 trophil policy made the friends of Russia his 

 enemies and caused an estrangement between 

 Servia and Montenegro. Consequently he re- 

 signed the post of Prime Minister when Prince 

 Milan reached his majority in 1872. He came 

 into power again in 1876, was at the head of the 

 Government during the war with Turkey, and in 

 1878 was sent as the Servian representative to 

 the Congress at Berlin. The incorporation in 

 Servia of the districts of Nish, Vranja. and Pi rot, 

 and the final recognition of Servian independence 

 were gratifying to the Servians, but tney Mini 

 the Montenegrins were equally disappointed when 

 Austria was allowed to occupy Bosnia and H< 

 govina. lie adopted a hostile attitude touard 

 Austria after his return, leaning upon Russia, and 

 broke off negotiations with tne dual monarchy 

 for a commercial treaty. Austrian influence mi- 

 pel led him in 1880 to resign his offices of Prime 

 Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he 

 remained out till 1887, when he was the head of 

 a short-lived Lilx-ral Cabinet. As such he carried 

 through a revision of the Constitution of lsi<. 

 When King Milan abdicated in 1889 Ristich be- 

 came a member of the regency appointed to con- 

 duct affairs during the minority of Prince Alex- 

 ander. He took the side of the ex-King in hi* 

 conflict with Queen Natalie, whom he forcibly 

 expelled from Servia. In 1893 the young Kintr 

 dismissed his regents and declared himself ol 

 Ristich was out of favor until 1890, when he wai 

 once more called upon to form a ministry. ha \ing 

 been chosen leader of the Liberal party in 1 *!'."> 

 as the man best fitted to cope with the difliculties 

 of the Balkan situation at that critical time, lie 

 retired after a brief tenure of office. He was a 

 good linguist and the author of two volume- <>n 

 Servian life and literature, written in <;eim:in 

 when be was a young man; also of paper- <m 

 Servian history, the result of investigations in 

 the Paris archives. He lived sumptuously in a 

 Belgrade mansion, having accumulated a fortune. 



Rittner, Eduard, Austrian statesman, bm-n in 

 Bursztyn, Galicia, in 1845: died in September, 

 1899. He was Professor of Canon Law and after- 

 ward rector of the University of Lemberi. 1 . inking 

 little part in politics until he was called in 

 to the Ministry of Public Instruction in the Kiel- 

 mansegg Cabinet. In the C'abinet of Count I'.adeni 

 he was retained as a representative of Galicia. 

 but without a portfolio. He was a Deputy for 

 Galicia in the Reichsrath and a member <f the 

 Galician Diet. 



Roberts, Sir Randal Howland, Engli-h actor 

 and author, born in the County Cork. Ireland. 

 March 28, 1837; died in Clapham, England. <M. 

 3, 1899. He was the fourth baronet of hi- -u<- 

 cession, a retired captain of the 33d !>'< -jiinent 

 of the British army. He served in the ( limean 

 War and the Indian mutiny. When the Franco- 

 Prussian War broke out in 1870 he went to the 

 Continent as war correspondent, with the Pru-- 

 sian forces, of the London Telegraph. Hi- <l>'lmt 

 both as an actor and as a dramatist occurred at 

 the Olympic Theater, London, May !.". ls7<;. in 

 his own comedietta Under a Veil. He became 

 a favorite player of light, genteel comedy part-. 

 He was a member of the company of the Olympic 

 Theater for a season, and was subsequently in 

 the United States one season. He wrote short 

 plays of considerable merit, and wa- a No author 

 of popular military and sporting novels and his- 

 tories. His best-known works are Riverside, or t he 



