Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1892 — HE WAS A BRAVE FELLOW. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HE WAS A BRAVE FELLOW.

Sketch of Mate Rtgrgln, Who Lost His Life In the Chilian Riot. Few knew him except his brother and his sisters, yet Charles W. Riggin, one of the victims of the Chilian crime, murdered in the streets of Valparaiso while he wore the navy blue of the United States, was Philadelphia born. His home was here, says the Inquirer, and the child he loved is here. The dispatches and the papers tell of him as the boatswain’s mate, not as the sailor ’prentice boy who, sixteen to the day, walked aboard the training ship Portsmouth at League Island Feb. 10, twelve years ago. His brother says he was a handsome lad. His picture speaks for him afterward. He did his best to get ahead in the two years he was learning to be a man-of-war’s man. His medal of merit later on shows that he had “Fidelity, Zeal, and Obedience” for his motto. He won it when he was a full seaman on the Tennessee. She was the flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron then, and he gave his services the full cruise—three years. He liked the water and the flag he sailed under so well that immediate re-enlistment came to him naturally. As of the old vessel he was sent to the torpedo station in Newport harbor for advanced Instruction. Successful again, he was pushed on to the gunnery school at Washington, and there he gained the skill to make the model that his brother prizes, a miniature of the six-inch rifle, with its shining barrel, on a land carriage instead of the sea rest. From the Government shops he joined the Galena, and when he returned again it was on Thanksgiving Eve, in 1889, and for the last time. He lived

during the short shore spell—telling his sea yarns to the curly-haired nephew who bore his name and whom he idolized—with his brother, John I. Riggin, of the gas works, and the latter’s wife, at their cheerful home, 2914 Master street. It was within this visit that the double portrait, enlarged in crayon, was taken. He did not remain long, though there were also the ties of sisters to keep him from the sea. The old longing brought him to the Baltimore for his last voyage. He was with her nearly two years until, stabbed in the back by the mob, shot in the throat by the police, he gave up his life to the hatred of the enemies of his country.

RIGGIN AND HIS NEPHEW.