'My
friends,' he said to us one day, 'I have been obliged to put my clock
in the pot.' " - Schmidt. (Report of Frimaire 17, year IV.) "A
frequenter of the Stock-Exchange sells a louis at five thousand
francs. He dines for one thousand francs and loudly exclaims: 'I have
dined at four francs ten sous. They are really superb, these
assignats! I couldn't have dined so well formerly at twelve francs.'"
[141] Schmidt. (Reports of Frimaire 9, year IV.) "The reports
describe the sad condition of those who, with small incomes and having
sold their clothes, are selling their furniture, being, so to say, at
their last piece; and, soon without anything, are reduced to the last
extremity by committing suicide." - Ibid., Frimaire 2, "The rentier is
ruined, not being able to buy food. Employees are all in the same
situation." - Naturally, the condition of employees and rentiters
grows worse with the depreciation of assignats. Here are house-
keeping accounts at the end of 1795. (Letter of Beaumarchais' sister
Julie to his wife, December, 1794. "Beaumarchais et son temps," by De
Lomenie, p.486.) "When you gave me those four thousand francs
(assignats), my dear friend, my heart went pit-a-pat.
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