" Ornate clothing disappeared with
titles of nobility, and the silk stockings and knee breeches
(_culottes_), which had distinguished the privileged classes and
the gentlemen, were universally supplanted by the long trousers which
had hitherto been worn only by the lowest class of workingmen (_sans-
culottes_). To do away with the remembrance of historic
Christianity, the year was divided anew into twelve months, each
containing three weeks of ten days (_decades_), every tenth day
(_decadi_) being for rest, and the five or six days left over at
the end of the year, called _sans-culottides_, were national
holidays; the names of the months were changed, and the revolutionary
calendar made to date from the establishment of the republic, 22
September, 1792.
Many of the reforms had long been urgently needed and proved to be of
permanent value. Such was the establishment of a convenient and uniform
system of weights and measures, based on decimal reckoning, the so-
called metric system, which has come to be accepted by almost all
civilized nations save the English-speaking peoples.
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