New-York tribune., 1922-10-22
Phrygian Caps and Petticoats
By Esther Murphy

licaines Revolutionaires. Like The
roigne de Mericourt, Claire Laconlbs
was past mistress Of those "hiph
astounding terms" 80 dear to the revo.
lutionary heart. On behalf of herself
and her associates she presented a
petition to the National Assembly, In
which she declared, eve desire that
thera should not be a single unfortu-
nate person in the whole republic" :"
But despite the excellence Of her In
tentions, the turbulence of Claire La
combe's methods eventually brought
her into disfnvor with the revolutionary
government. Various charges were
brought against her. Of which the m ost
plausible was probably the one pre-
ferred by. an irRte member of the
Jacobin Club, who complained that the
Citizeness Lacombe pushes herself In
everywhere" When the women's clubs
were finally suppressed by the conven.
tion, Claire Lacombe disappeared from
the revolutionary scene.
Miss Stephens also reviyes tho
memory OF another remarkable woman
| OF the revolutionary epoch, Olympe de
| Gouges, who has been more comp mpfeteIy
forgotten that either Theroigne de
Ma,erlcourt or Claire Lacombe. About
olympe de Gouges's early life and ante
cedents little is known. She was one
or the lnnumerable individuals whom
the revolution brought forth from OBJ
security. The part she played in it.
however, was somewhat different from
that of either Theroigne de Mericourt
or Claire Lacombe. Like them, she
supported the revolution, but she was
above all an apostle of women's rights.
Michelet, indeed, called her "The high
pr1estess of feminism." She presented
petition to the National Assembly in
which she demanded that women be
accorded all the political privileges
enjoyed by men, and she drew up a.
Declaration of the Rights Of Women, )"
In which she stated among other ar
tieles of the feminist creed: Woman
has the right to mount the scaffold;
she should also have the right to
mount the platform" That fright to
mount the scaffold,' which the revolu-
tion never denied to her sen. tarmi-
mated Olympic de Gouges's strange
| career. She was guillotined for having
opposed the execution Of Louis XVI
and for having offered to defend him
at his trial
Miss Stephens, who throughout her
book preserves an admirable impair
hallty on the yeXed question of the
parties and politics of the revolution,
count OF the treatment accorded to the
feminist movement by the revolution
airy leaders, who met the efforts of
| the women TO secure tho same political
| privileges which the revolution had
I granted to men by decree abolishing
| the wolnen's clubs and denying to
women any share whatsoever in the
AFFAIRS of government.
| =, although the resentment which Miss
| i,,1A L
which Robespierre and his supporters
adopted toward the movement for
Women's emancipation Is entirely com
prehenslble on the part of as ardent
| feminist as she shows herself TO be,
viewed in the light OF history it is a
subject neither for wonder nor for In
dlgnation. There is no one as illiberal
as revolutlonist. The leaders Of the
french Revolution, like the leaders Of
/ all revolutions, had q particular for
mula which they believed would effect
the salvation of the human race, and
They had no sympathy with any re-
forms except their own. The Declara
tion Of the Rights of Man, the political
1 testament Of the French Revolution,
/ contained no affirmation OF the RIGHTS
| OF women, and the failure of the fem
INST movement under the revolution is
summarized In France to-day bv the
restrictions imposed upon women by
the Code Napoleon.
4 The final impression LETT by Miss
/ Stephens's book is one of the sadness
that always surrounds record ~
frustrated hopes and aims imnossible
I, OF attainment.
Ihe women Of the revolution dreamed
OF world transformed into IJtonia'
/ Ihe revolution was to make all man
nnappy n ny BY making them vfrtuous and
| free. There is an iuefpable natb os
anout their figures as we see than IN
! Miss stephens's pages viewed across M
4 the gulf of the intervening years. from,
ihe vantage point Of an age that ,znowa
them ror the standard bearers az a
4 cause lost long ago--Chariotte Cordav.
VINO believed that che had saved Franc,
/ py kliilng Marat, and who wrote froro
phe prison where she awaited tha hnn,.
that would bring her to the scaffoId
q letter which she dated "the sacn,d ! !
! gay gay OF the Preparation Of the Peace .
oiympe de Gouges; with her plea that
women were born free and equal In
rights TO mem; Theroigne de Mari.
court telling Of her vision of the Tano
PIE OF Liberty and the overthrow ~ ai1
4 tyranny; Claire Laconbe and her No.
tltion 70 abolish human MISERY s ~
rise before us as they passed fo thaiyr
destined ends, believinr in fhair sa,,
afate faiths and in their r,issior =
aellVer mankind, and never dreaming
mat the light which they saw nr +he
lorlzon q, was not the dawn of the Golden