The San Francisco call., 1906-05-27
Special Dispatch to The Call.

Special Dispatch to The Call.
PARIS, May 26.--Madame Sorgue the
new Louise Michel of France, whose
participation in the Lens strike has wor-
ried the authorities more than perhaps
anything else that has happened there is
one of the most interesting and fascinat-
ing women of the republic She is the
antithesis of the POPULAR conception of a
feminine apostle of anarchy. She has
great beauty and extraordinary talents
and she has-or had-considerabe
wealth.
She might have commanded everything
that women ordinarily most covet. She
could have won fame on the stage; she
might have achieved distinction in litera-
ture: or, had she preferred it, she could
easily have made herself the central fig
ure of brilliant Paris salon. So kind
to her were the fairies who, presided over
her birth that success was open to her in
almost every direction, had she cared to-
strive for it. She has voluntarily aban-
doned all the prizes of life which were
within her reach to espouse d cause in
which Sac has everything to lose and
nothing to gain. She has not even the
consolation of knowing that she has won
the gratitude of those whom she has made
the greatest sacrifices to benefit. They
would not turn finger to help her.
1T is l who introduced the eight-hour
day in my region she said the other
day to friends at Lens. where she is try
ing to incite the miners to revolt. 81
then tried to get others to do likewise.
At every socialist congress, fight for the
eight-hour principle. Sympathetic reSo-
lutions are passed which nobody notices.
not even the most prominent socialist
leaders. They say that they are busy
winning over big capitalists who would
De frightened away by my radical meth
DDS. The truth is, the socialists them
selves despite all their talk about human
brotherhood and the rights of man, will
probably be the last to adopt the meas
ure. Meanwhile l persevere | have not
,nly introduced the eight-hour day on my
own estate, but / have inspired laborers
elsewhere with a taste for it. To my own
cost certainly. but the seed has been
sown which will bear good fruit later
though l may read none of it.
"Only a few weeks ago. my servant
asked some workmen to saw wood for me
For their advanceFent. / have sacrificed
my property to the extent that / shall
probably be sold out soon. Their answer
was to point to the clock. showing that
their eight hours was up, and they
went away without touching the wood.
They feel no gratitude toward me- but
they cling to what 1 have given them.
And that is my reward. My neighbors
will be brought to do what have done by
| have educated.
They think me ignorant and weak for
having sought to serve them instead of
trying to make as much money as possi-
BILE out of them. But they feel their own
strength and are beginning to make others
feel it, thanks to me. That is the SINGER
est of tributes. unwittingly as it may be
rendered"
Most of the peasantry in the Aveyron
region where her estate is situated re-
gard Madame Sorgue, indeed. as the
DEVILS dam whom the evil one comes to
visit by night down the chimney. The
lneighboring landowners are bitterly hos
tile to her for breeding discomfort among
| their hands. Her advanced views are so
! far beyond those of the more moderate
socialists that they unite with the capital
lists in denouncing her. M. Basly. d So
cialist Deputy and Mayor of Lens. who,
in earlier days hailed her as a comrade
and colleague. bitterly declaims against
her anarchist propaganda.
She was just plain socialist without
any adjective when she served as model
for the marble bust by Denys Puech,
called La Belle Anarchiste,'' which was
purchased by the state few years ago
| for the National Museum. 1t is one of
the marbles which always attracts at
tention at the Luxembourg. With its coils
of hair piled in Maepa-like confusion, it
is strilxingly original head, fun of force
and character with something curiously
oriental about the mouth and jaws. Since
she sat for the bust, she has fully justified
4 its title.
Madame Sorgue has had several hair
breadth escapes for her life at the hands
Of the very people who, according to her