Fear > The sans-culottes > A Pamphlet trying to describe who the sans-culottes were

A sans-culotte, you devils? This is a creature wh always goes on foot, who does not own millions of livres, as you would all like to do, owns no chateau, has no servants to do his bidding, and who lives very simply, with his wife and children, if he has any, on the fourth or fifth floor.

He is useful, for he knows how to work in th fields, or in a smithy or sawmill, how to use a file, how to cover a roof, make his own clogs - and how to pour out his blood to the last drop for the good of the republic. And since he is at work, one many be sure not to see his face in the fashionable Chartres café nor in the low bars where there is conspiring and gambling, nor in the literary salons.

In the evening he goes to his section meeting, without powder or scent or boots, not with any hope of being noticed by the women citizens on the benches, but in order to lend all his strength to sound motions, and to crush any which arise from the odious faction of so-called statesmen. Apart from that, sans-culotte always has an edge on his blade: to trim the ears of ill-wisheirs. Sometimes he marches with his pike; but at the first sound of the drum you may see him setting off for the Vendée, for the army of the Alps or of the North.

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