Woman of the Century/Margaret Manton Merrill

MERRILL, Miss Margaret Manton, journalist, born in England in 18 —. She has spent thirty-five years of her life in Minnesota, Colorado and California. Her father was the Rt. Rev. William E. Merrill, who fur forty years was one of the foremost educators of the Northwest. MARGARET MANTON MERRILL. Her mother was a grandniece of Sir Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, and her grandmother on the maternal side was second-cousin to "Royal Charlie" of Scotland. In spite of her lineage. Miss Merrill is very proud of the fact that she is an American woman. Entering Carlton College at the age of fourteen, she remained there a year, and then continued her studies in the University of Minnesota, from which institution she was graduated, being chosen by her class as the valedictorian. The succeeding fall, when just eighteen years old, she began her career as teacher, which vocation she continued successfully for two years. Her taste for literary work led her to the journalistic field, when she was barely twenty years old. Going to Denver, she purchased the "Colorado Temperance Gazette," which was then the only temperance paper in that State. The venture was not a success, on account of the doings of a partner, and also because the anti-temperance spirit was at that time too strong in Colorado for the prosperity of a paper wholly devoted to that cause. Later, during the temperance campaigns in Kansas and Iowa, she did very excellent service as a lecturer and organizer. She was especially fortunate in her labors among children. In. 1887 she went to New York City to do regular newspaper work. When the Woman's Press Club of New York was organized, she was one of the charter members, and was elected the club's first secretary. She is a club journalist of Sorosis, and a very active member of that club. She is now upon the staff of the New York " Herald " and is the only woman employed in that capacity by that great journal. In addition, she does syndicate and miscellaneous work, being especially successful as a writer of children's stones. During her vacations she has been an extensive traveler, having at various times visited every habitable portion of the globe. At the time of the famine in South Dakota, in 1889, she went through nineteen destitute counties in midwinter, visiting the homes of the people, and bringing back to her paper correct accounts of the condition of affairs there. The result was that large contributions were sent from the East, and many were relieved from want During 1890 she visited the Yellowstone Park and wrote accounts for papers in the West and in England, which have attracted attention. While in California, she wrote a poem, entitled "The Faro Dealer's Story," which gained for her considerable local fame. At present she is contemplating a work upon ancient Babylon.