which the Abbe Maury was delivering. The
orator, finally losing his patience, interrupted his discourse, and,
indicating his unappreciative hearers with his forefinger, turned to the
presiding officer:

"Monsieur le President," he said, "make these two
_sans-culottes_--unbreeched, trouserless--keep quiet."

This appellation, applied to the two ladies, naturally turned the laugh
against them, and the phrase, repeated from mouth to mouth, was adopted
by the people of the faubourgs as a title glorifying their miserable
condition and their aspirations.

Another of these Revolutionary prints, from the _National Almanac_ for
1791, engraved by Debucourt, and preserved in the collection of M.
Muhlbacher of Paris, gives an ingenious and picturesque presentation of
one of the numberless sources of supply of that literature of journals
and pamphlets on which the Revolution was so largely fed. This
_marchande de journaux_, who adorns a page in the calendar, sits between
two benches covered with papers and pamphlets, and set off with ribbons,
flowers, and patriotic emblems mounted on rods; her costume and her
attitude are also patriotic and a trifle dishevelled, and she is shrilly
proclaiming the new decree concerning the value of the assignat which
she holds out. Behind her, a couple of elderly aristocrats are about to
come into collision with two younger citizens, representatives of the
newer ideas, and absorbed in reading some catechism for patriots. On the
sidewalk are two boys in the costumes of their elders, one of whom is
supposed to be pointing to the date of July 14th in the calendar. This
plate is referred to in the _Art du 18e siecle_, by Edmond and Jules
de Goncourt.

[Illustration: CHEZ LES HETAIRES.

Caricature from _La Journee du Poete Decadent_.]

It is worthy of remark that even this sacred date of the 14th of July,
that of the national fete, is nowadays not exempt from that curious
self-criticism which in every tone of mockery, semi-seriousness, and
grave apprehension occupies so considerable a proportion of contemporary
French literature, from the _Siecle_ to the _Bulletin de la Societe
d'Economie Sociale et des Unions de la Paix Sociale_. So persistent had
this criticism become that the national authorities this year (1898) in
the capital thought it fit to tack on to the national and municipal
celebration of a great political event, in order to give it greater
weight and dignity, the commemoration of the