Ferrer's Crimes and His Doom.

Early in June Ferrer and his female companion left hurriedly for Barcelona, and then came the dreadful July revolution, in which churches, convents, and charitable institutions were sacked and gutted and given to the flames. It was proved over and over in court that Ferrer not only stirred up these riots, but actively took part in them. "Every man, woman, and child in Barcelona believed, from the first moment of the orgie of fire and bloodshed, that Ferrer was the life and soul of the revolt (alma de la revuelta)," says a Spanish "Life of Ferrer," recently published, "and such also was the boast of Soledad Villafranca before she began making efforts to save him."

When justice at last triumphed, and Ferrer was shot in a ditch at Montjuich, it was discovered that this unnatural father had made a will in which he disinherited his daughters, leaving £80,000 to his paramour, Soledad Villafranca, and to an Anarchist named Portet, in order that the sanguinary propaganda of Anarchism might be continued after his death.

"Such was the career of this man, whom many ignorant people outside of Spain hold to have been a page 9 martyr, hero, and model citizen," says the Spanish "Life of Ferrer," "but who was in reality a rebel against authority, a heartless father, a divorcee, an adulterer, an incendiary, an assassin, and a coward." "He was the embodiment of evil," writes the Spanish correspondent of a Chicago journal, "and even had he twenty lives, the taking of them would not atone for all the sins and crimes done by him while he lived. All the Catholics of Spain, and all the working men and all men who love decency and order, applaud the action of the Government in bringing him to justice. The only persons who took part in the public manifestation in favour of this burner of convents, killer of priests, and dishonourer of nuns were the Masons, Anarchists, and Spanish Republicans, and the activity of these disgusted all the decent-living people of Spain."^*

Such, in brief outline, was the life-story of the man who, more than any other, was responsible for the horrors of the "Bloody Week" in Barcelona. Let us now see the kind of education which he imparted to the 2000 boys and girls who frequented his "Modern Schools."