HAVE YOU MET—

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22431, 18 June 1938, Page 19

HAVE YOU MET—

The Eloquent Stammererf

In 1760 was born a stammering Frenchman, Camille Desmoulins. Well educated, a great classical scholar, he was stirred to the depths by his vision of the new republic, believing it would be founded on the ancient republics of which he had read.

On the eve of the great revolution in 1789 this ardent scholar and patriot published pamphlets which did much to stir up .France; and when that fateful July came, Camille Desmoulins did what he and everyone else thought he could never do as long as he lived. He made a speech.

Usually he stammered. The more he wanted to say, the less he could say. But on July 11, he jumped on a table, and made an impromtu speech to a wondering and excited crowd. He spoke without a pause, without stuttering. He roused his hearers to a frenzy. He gathered up all their enthusiasm and directed it into a single channel. “The Bastille!” was his cry, “To 1 arms!”

Fired by his words, thrilled by his challenge, goaded by his sarcasm, the mob made the great attack.

His publications were oil on the flames he had fanned to white heat. He was Danton’s right-hand man. But when he saw the lengths to which Robespierre was going in the Reign of Terror he advocated clemency. For this he was tried and guillotined on April 5, 1794.