America and South America. Her musical talent was developed at an early age, and she made her début as Valentine in the "Huguenots," in Linz, Austria, when seventeen years of age. She came to the United States in 1875, under the management of Adolf Neuendorf, in company with the tenor, Theodor Wachtel, and sang in 1876 during the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and also at the opening of the new Music Hall in Cincinnati. She was for a number of years a star in Colonel Mapleson's company, and appeared in concerts and in the great musical festivals in Worcester, Boston, New York and other large cities in the East and West. The United States is especially indebted to her for advancing the ideas of Wagner. She was the first to create Senta in "The Flying Dutchman," and Walküre, without being an absolute disciple of that great composer, for she was equally successful in the rôles of Italian and French operas. In 1888 she retired from public life and has since devoted her time to vocal instruction in New York City. What the stage has lost, the coming generations will profit by her teachings. Although established for a few years only, she is already recognized as one of the most successful vocal instructors in the United States, and some of her pupils are rising stars on the operatic and concert stage.
PARKER, Miss Alice, lawyer, born in Lowell, Mass., 21st April, 1864. She attended the public schools and was graduated from the high school in Lowell.
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ALICE PARKER.
She entered the Boston Latin school, which she left to take up the study of medicine. Her father is the well-known Dr. Hiram Parker, of Lowell, and it was natural that her tastes should run in that direction. On her father's death, being left an only daughter with a widowed mother and in possession of a considerable estate, she felt
the necessity for educating herself to a pursuit where she could eventually manage her affairs. Not being in very robust health, she went in 1885 to California, where, regaining her health, she
entered upon a course of law studies. She continued her studies under the tuition of a prominent lawyer in that State. She applied for admission to the supreme court of California in the July term of
1888, and in a class of nineteen applicants took the first place and was admitted without consultation by the full bench in open court, a distinction seldom shown by that rigid tribunal. Equipped with
a thorough theoretical knowledge of law, she began at once to enter into the practice, preparing briefs for lawyers and searching for precedents and authorities among the thousands of volumes of
reported cases from the highest tribunals of England and America. As she was getting into active practice, her mother's health required her to return to the East. She was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1890 and entered into active practice in Boston, retaining her residence in Lowell and also having her evening office and a special
day each week for Lowell clients. She is a general practitioner and tries or argues a case irrespective of any specialty, though probate business has come to her in large portions by reason, no doubt,
of her series of learned and highly interesting articles published in the "Home Journal," of Boston, under the title of "Law for my Sisters." Those contain expositions of the law of marriage, widows, breach of promise, wife's necessaries, life insurance on divorce, sham marriages and names. When completed, they will be published in book form. They have been largely quoted by the press and entitle the author to a place among the popular law-writers. Miss Parker devotes her time solely to her profession. Though she does not enter into the spirit of becoming a public reformer for suffrage and woman's rights, she assists with her talents and labor any object having in view the amelioration of her sex. She is the author of many amendments before the Massachusetts legislature affecting property rights of women, and she has made it her task to procure such legislation at each session as will accomplish that end.
PARKER, Miss Helen Almena, dramatic reader and impersonator, was born near Salem, Ore. She is from Puritanic German and Scotch ancestry, and is a near relative of Commodore Oliver H. Perry. Her family is one of patriots. One of her grandfathers went entirely through the Revolutionary War. Her father and his only brother enlisted in the Union service in the rebellion. Miss Parker's parents are both natives of New York State. They are well known to reformers, much of the best years of their lives having been spent in active work in the temperance cause. The mother was one of the leaders in the crusade, and the history of that movement written by her has had a large circulation. She is widely known as a philanthropist; she organized the first "Home for the Friendless" society in Nebraska and was for many years State president of the same. Through her efforts an appropriation was made by the Nebraska Legislature and a home was established in Lincoln.
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HELEN ALMENA PARKER.
Miss Parker's education was begun in Holy Angels' Academy, Logansport, Ind. Later she removed with her parents to Lincoln, Neb., where, after taking a high-school course, she entered the Nebraska State University. During her second year in the university she was chosen to represent that institution in a literary contest with Doane College, in Crete, Neb. She won the laurels and determined to make oratory a study. She entered the special course in oratory in Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., from which she was graduated in 1885. Immediately after graduating she entered upon her work as
