Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
In the street, the great open-air salon of the people, was a feverish
going to and fro. Here were the tub-thumpers of the Revolution holding
forth at every public place; the strident voices of ballad-singers at
the street corners; hawkers of the latest pamphlets hot from the Quai
des Augustins; the sellers of journals crying the _Pere Duchesne_,
_L'Ami du Peuple_, the _Jean Bart_, the _Vieux Cordelier_. Crowds
gathered round Bassett's famous shop for caricature at the corner of
the Rue St. Jacques and the Rue des Mathurins. The walls of Paris were
a mass of variegated placards and proclamations. The charming signs of
the old _regime_, the Pomme rouge, the Rose Blanche, the Ami du
Coeur, the Gracieuse, the Trois Fleurs-de-lys Couronnees gave place
to the "Necker," the "National Assembly," the "Tiers," the
"Constitution"--these, too, soon to be effaced by more Republican
appellations. For on the abolition of the monarchy and the
inauguration of the Religion of Nature, the words "royal" and "saint"
disappear from the revolutionary vocabulary. A new calendar is
promulgated: streets and squares are renamed: Rues des Droits de
l'Homme, de la Revolution, des Piques, de la Loi, efface the old
landmarks. We must now say Rue Honore, not St. Honore, and Mont Marat
for Montmartre. Naturalists had written of the queen bee: away with
the hated word! She is now named of all good patriots the _abeille
pondeuse_, the egg-laying bee. In the Punch and Judy shows the gallows
gives place to the guillotine. No more emblems on playing cards of
king, queen, and knave: allegorical figures of Genius, Liberty and
Equality take their places, and since Law alone is above them all,
Patriotism, as it flings down its biggest card, shall cry no longer,
"Ace of trumps," but "Law of trumps," and "Genius of trumps." Chess
terms too were republicanised. Furniture becomes of Spartan
simplicity. The people lie down on patriotic beds and eat and drink
from patriotic mugs and platters. Lotteries are abolished, regulations
launched against the sale of indecent literature, drawings or
paintings; the open following of the profession of Rahab prohibited;
bull fights suppressed. Silver buckles are needed by the national war
chest: shoes shall now be clasped by patriotic buckles of copper. The
monarchial "_vous_" (you) shall give place to "_toi_" (thou); and
"monsieur" and "madame" to "_citoyen_" and "_citoyenne_." The formal
subscriptions to letters, "Your humble servant," "Your obedient
servant," shall no more recall the old days of class subjection; we
write now "Your fellow citizen," "Your friend," "Your equal." Every
house bears an inscription, giving the names and ages of the
occupants, decorated with patriotic colours of red, white and blue,
with figures of the Gallic cock and the _bonnet rouge_. Over every
public building runs the legend, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity or
Death"[174]--it is even seen over the cages of the wild beasts at the
Jardin des Plantes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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