The Fate of Nuns.

The fury of the revolutionary mob was now directed chiefly against churches and convents. When nuns appeared at the windows of convents, beseeching the rioters not to burn them, their appeals were greeted with volleys of stones. Nuns were seen running, terror-stricken, through streets, pursued by the brutal mob. Schools for little boys and girls, convents of nuns and nursing sisters, were now the special quarry of the rioters, who took care to loot the entire building before they destroyed it. Women, boys, and even girls took part in these ghastly orgies. Women prisoners were brought in drunk, covered with blood, and in a state of madness. In one place a large liquor store was looted, and then given to the flames.

Most of the nuns escaped in disguise, and were hidden in private houses by friends and sympathisers. In one instance a group of helpless nuns, who tried to escape in their religious habits, were pursued and captured by the ferocious mob, amid yells of "Burn them alive! Burn them alive!" Five or six thousand orphans, cared for by the nuns in various institutions, were turned out into the streets before the burning of the orphanages, and went wandering about without food or shelter, until some kindly-disposed people took charge of them in their homes.

Signora Corti, of Genoa, the famous Italian grand opera singer, who was in Barcelona at the time, has given a brief but vivid picture of the savage fury of page 20 the Anarchist rioters:—"In the Calle Valencia, quite close to the Calle Arribas, where I was staying, a monastery of the Padres Escolapios and a convent of nuns were attacked and burned by the revolutionaries. I learned that a number of the monks were slain in an underground passage. I myself saw many terrorstricken, more than half-naked, nuns running down the Calle Arribas, under my windows, pursued by a howling, blaspheming mob."

On Wednesday (July 28) 10,000 revolutionists were seen by the correspondent of the London "Daily Telegraph" marching along the streets carrying the mutilated remains of their victims—bodies, legs, and heads—on long poles. It was a procession worthy of Anarchists—and of savages in Dahomey. General Santiago did not dare to open fire upon the leaders of this gruesome procession, as his reinforcements had not yet arrived. Another horrible episode in the revolution was this: The vaults and sacred resting-places of the dead were desecrated; the bodies of recently-deceased nuns and pupils were "paraded in ghoulish procession through the streets, and afterwards burned in a large bonfire. The Father Guardian of the Franciscan Convent and another priest were murdered in cold blood. One woman boasted that she had killed four Civil Guards (policemen) with her own hands, and wounded several others. The victims of the mob were principally Soldiers and police who fell into their hands, and were barbarously mutilated, either before or after death. The cries and watchwords of these Ferrerite mobs were: "Long live the Social Revolution! Death to the Rich! Down with the Army!"

Brigadier-General H. A. Reed, of the United States Army, who happened to be an eye-witness of these scenes, gives an interesting description of them in the "Journal of the Military Service Institution" (Nov.-Dec., 1909). He declares that the number of killed and wounded among the troops, police, and civilians, as officially reported, was much understated. Of the attacks on priests and nuns, General Reed says:—

"As a rule, the monks, friars, priests, and nuns that, in their own dress or disguised as peasants, had page 21 escaped from their church or convent, and sought refuge in the parochial buildings of a neighbouring town, were ejected by the rioters and driven from the town. Some of the priests were inhumanely, even unspeakably, maltreated; they were the victims of the very incarnation of hatred. In Barcelona the incident which most attracted public attention was the barbarous treatment of the dead nuns. The ruffians disinterred sixteen of these. The losses by sacking were, in many instances, great, especially from the convents and colleges. . . . One Mother Superior lost in convertible bonds 40,000 dollars. By the fire very valuable works of art and scientific instruments were destroyed, and the Padres Escolapios lost a magnificent library. About 5000 children were rendered temporarily homeless."