ABSTRACT
The word club means, of course, a heavy stick. To club someone means to beat them with that stick. When men gather in a mass to make themselves felt, they are known as a club. The social connotations of the word have since overshadowed these underlying realities. But in Paris, in October 1789, when the Clubs appeared in the open, there was no doubt of their purpose. They intended to beat upon the Assembly, and on all France.
