464 



Character Sketch. 



Madame Sorgue t " The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe." 



THERE is perhaps no single woman living to-day 

 who has played so vital a part in the organisation 

 and inspiration oi modern revolutionary move- 

 ments throughout li^urope as the famous Frenchwoman 

 who is the subject of 

 this interview, and who has 

 lieeii described by the 

 public prosecutor at the 

 Court of Assizes at Milan 

 as " the most dangerous 

 woman in Europe." 



" Sorgue," as she is 

 known all over the Con- 

 tinent, is not only a dis- 

 tinguished woman herself, 

 but has also a distinguished 

 family history. The 

 daughter of Durand de 

 (Iros, the French philo- 

 sopher, who is chiefly 

 known to fame perhaps 

 for his theory o{ pol\zoisi;:e 

 and of polyschisiiie, and as 

 one of the precursors of 

 the Schools of psycho- 

 therapeutics, Madame 

 Sorgue has inheiited the 

 same breadth of vision 

 which characterised her 

 f a I h e r . She is that 

 anomaly, " a revolutionary- 

 aristocrat," for her grand- 

 father was the Russian 

 (leneral Cripkoff, and her 

 uncle Istomine was the 

 senior Admiral of the 

 Baltic Fleet, and one of 

 the most loyal upholders 

 of the Romanoff" dynasty. 



Her bust in the Luxem- 

 bourg, by Denys Puech, 

 conveys a wonderfully 

 faithful reflection of the 

 l)sychology of a woman 

 who coinl)ines with a brain 

 of e.\cc])tionil power a 

 certain childlike directness 

 of outlook — a woman who 

 at nineteen sought a chan- 

 nel for her energies on the 

 French stage, and then 

 ])assed in rapid succession 

 through the riiL's of jour- 

 nalist, and revolutionary 

 speaker and writer, ha\ ing Madame Sorgue, 



to-day an international reputation in the latter 



capacities. 



She has been a thorn in the side of most European 



Governments, and in 189S was the storm-centre of 



Portuguese politics. It is 

 not difficult, after you have 

 met this extraordinary 

 woman, to believe the 

 story I have heard in 

 various pans of Europe of 

 the part she played in the 

 International Press Con- 

 gress of that year at 

 Lisbon, which was opened 

 by the late ill-fated King 

 Carlos in person. Every 

 journalist in the Congress 

 lose to receive the King 

 save the irreconcilable 

 Sorgue, who remained 

 seated. When the King 

 passed near her it v/as as 

 though he had a presci- 

 ence of the terrible fate 

 which overtook him so 

 shoit a time ago in the 

 streets of the Portuguese 

 capital, f o r his face 

 blanched, believing as he 

 did that the terrible Sorguo 

 meant to assassinate him. 

 However that may be, he 

 had her thiown into ])risoii 

 at Oporto, which nearly 

 precipitated the revolution 

 of last year, for the people 

 demonstrated in thousands 

 and compelled the autho- 

 rities to set her free. The 

 Portuguese Government 

 ex|ielled her from Lisbon, 

 ami paid a tribute to her 

 remarkable power over the 

 Portuguese proletariat by 

 ;endmg a gunboat to escort 

 her down the Tagus be- 

 cause the working class 

 of Lisbon had organised 

 a huge demonstration on 

 the river in her honour. 



She has also played a 

 prominent part in the 

 Italian class struggle. She 

 was one of the militants of 

 the great Parma Stiiia-, was 



