Chaumette

(Pierre Gaspard), afterwards Anaxagoras, French revolutionary, b. Nevers, 24 May, 1763. The son of a shoemaker, he was in turn cabin boy, steersman, and attorney’s clerk. In early youth he received le ons in botany from Rou eau. He embraced the revolution with ardor, was the first to a ume the tri-color cockade, became popular orator at the club of the Cordeliers, and was a ociated with Proud homme in the journal Les Revolutions de Paris . Nominated member of the Commune 10 Aug. 1792, he took the name of Anaxagoras to show his little regard for his baptismal saints. He was elected Procureur Syndic, in which capacity he displayed great activity. He abolished the rod in schools, suppre ed lotteries, instituted workshops for fallen women, established the first lying-in-hospital, had books sent to the hospitals, separated the insane from the sick, founded the Conservatory of Music, opened the public libraries every day (under the ancien régime they were only open two hours per week), replaced books of superstition by works of morality and reason, put a graduated tax on the rich to provide for the burial of the poor, and was the principal mover in the feasts of Reason and closing of the churches. He was accused by Robes pierre of conspiring with Cloots “to efface all idea of the Deity,” and was guillotined 13 April, 1794.