"Everybody made themselves small so as to pass beneath the popular yoke.[3214] Everybody became one of the low class....

Clothes, manners, refinement, cleanliness, the conveniences of life, civility and politeness were all renounced."-- People wear their clothes indecently and curse and swear; they try to resemble the sans-culottes Montagnards "who are profane and dress themselves like so many dock-loafers;"[3215] at Armonville, the carder, who presides (at a meeting) wears a woolen cap, and similarly at Cusset, a gauze-workman, who is always drunk.

Only Robespierre dares appear in neat attire; among the others, who do not have his influence, among the demi-suspects with a pot-belly, such a residue of the ancient regime might become dangerous; they do well not to attract the attention of the foul-mouthed spy who cannot spell;[3216] especially is it important at a meeting to be one of the crowd and remain unnoticed by the paid claqueurs, drunken swaggerers and "fat petticoats" of the tribunes.

It is even essential to shout in harmony with them and join in their bar-room dances.

The deputations of the popular clubs come for fourteen months to the bar of the house and recite their common-place or bombastic tirades, and the Convention is forced to applaud them.