- Thereupon, the
representatives on mission exclaim, each shouting in a louder or lower
key, according to his character.
"Many of the cultivators," writes Dartigoyte,[93] "affect a supreme
indifference for this splendid crop. One must have seen it, as I
have, to believe how great the neglect of the wheat is in certain
parts, how it is smothered by the grass . . . . Draft, if the case
requires it, a certain number of inhabitants in this or that commune
to work in another one. . . . Every man who refuses to work,
except on the 'decade' day, must be punished as an ill-disposed
citizen, as a royalist." -
" Generous friends of nature," writes Ferry,[94] introduce amongst
you, perpetuate around you, the habit of working in common and begin
with the present crop. Do not spare either indolent women or indolent
men, those social parasites, many of whom you doubtless have in your
midst. What! allow lazy men and lazy women where we are! Where should
we find a Republican police? . . . Immediately on the reception of
this present order the municipal officers of each commune will convoke
all citoyennes in the Temple of the Eternal and urge them, in the name
of the law, to devote themselves to the labors of harvesting.
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