A lady in Russia who knew Madam Sigída well, and who was at one time closely associated with her, has writ- ten me the following estimate of her character:
Hope Sigída was a woman naturally endowed with great men- tal ability and intrepidity. In her appearance and behavior there was nothing whatever to suggest the blue-stocking, or the "Nihil- ist," and for that reason all who knew her merely in her official capacity as a teacher in the public schools were astonished when she was arrested in the secret printing-office. But, apart from the official side of her character, there was another, never seen by the curious eyes of the uninitiated. She was a conspirator. You know, Mr. Kennan, how innocent, and even praiseworthy, are the objects that a Russian has to attain by means of conspiracy. If you try to help your comrades and friends by bringing them to- gether at intervals for study and discussion, the Government im- mediately invents anew and previously unheard-of crime called "organizing circles for self-cultivation." If you try to teach poor peasants to read, and to instruct them with regard to their rights and duties as human beings, you are accused by the Government of another "crime" — viz: "having dealings with peasant laborers." Of course, Hope Sigída had every reason to be a conspirator. She was a woman of great independence and self-reliance, she had a rarely developed sense of justice, she was intelligent and cultivated in the highest degree, she was absolutely fearless in the domain of thought, and she was a fanatical idealist. She naturally played a leading part, therefore, both in the gymnasium and in the "circle for self-cultivation," and by all of her associates in those organiza- tions she was greatly beloved. In personal appearance Madam Sigída was very attractive. She was a rather slender brunette of medium height, with an oval face full of expression and energy, and remarkably beautiful eyes. She was always dressed neatly and with taste, but very simply.
In February, 1890, soon after the receipt in Europe of the first news of the Kará tragedy, the St. Petersburg Nóvoe Vrémya and the Journal de St. Petersbourg [the official organ of the Russian Foreign Office] declared that "the reports of the flogging to death of Madam Sigída and the suicide of three other female prisoners at Kará, in the province of the
