Ferrer Arrives in Barcelona

Well, on the morning of the fateful 26th Ferrer betook himself to Barcelona, and Moreno met him, as arranged, at the Estacion de Francia.

Continuing Spanish Civil War Prelude,
with a selection from Barcelona Outbreak by William Archer. This selection is presented in 5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Spanish Civil War Prelude.

Time: 1909
Place: Barcelona

It is now time to return to Ferrer. On July 22nd — just four days after the Sunday that witnessed the first scene of protest against the war and four days before the Monday of the general strike — he wrote a letter to Miguel Moreno, formerly a teacher in the Escuela Moderna, who desired to discuss with him the possible foundation of a farm-school. Here is the letter in full (I have seen the original):

MONGAT, 22/7, 1909.

Friend Moreno:

I have so many things to arrange and put in order here at Mongat that I intend to go very little to Barcelona until I have finished.

In order to see me, the best plan would be for you to come here on some holiday afternoon. But, if that does not suit you, I would come to Barcelona on Sunday morning, by a train that arrives at nine. In that case let me know before hand and meet me at the station. “I repeat that I am your affectionate,

Ferrer.

We have recently lost a niece eight years old, to our no small sorrow, as you may suppose.”

Here we find “the author and chief of the rebellion,” four days before its outbreak, not even mentioning public affairs, and expressing a wish to avoid coming to Barcelona. Moreno, however, in his reply, suggested a meeting at the station, not for Sunday, but for Monday morning; and to this Ferrer agreed. We may be absolutely sure that he did not visit Barcelona in the interval; for, if he had done so, the police spies would have reported the fact, and the prosecution would not have failed to make much of it. But perhaps he was all the time plotting the revolt by correspondence? No one who has any experience of the Spanish post-office will believe this possible. We must remember, too, that immediately after the “tragic week” the police made hundreds, if not thousands, of domiciliary visits, without discovering a single letter of Ferrer’s inciting to, or in any way bearing upon, the disturbances. The prosecution, in short, though it admitted that Ferrer was under close surveillance, did not even attempt to bring home to him a single act of preparation or organization during the critical days before the outbreak. What would a jury have thought of this omission?

Well, on the morning of the fateful 26th Ferrer betook himself to Barcelona, and Moreno met him, as arranged, at the Estacion de Francia. Here it was that the two streams of private and of public events definitely flowed together. Moreno was, in fact, one of those most actively concerned in the organization of the strike. He naturally told Ferrer what was afoot; and he strongly asserts that this was the first Ferrer had heard of it.

“What did he say?” I asked.

“He said,” Moreno replied, “that if it was a serious movement that was going to lead to anything, it had all his sympathy; but if it was to be a mere flash in the pan, he regretted it.”

On parting from Moreno, Ferrer, according to his own account (confirmed by his employees and by independent witnesses), proceeded to his publishing office in the Calle Cortes. He had not been long there when a band of women appeared, demanding that the office should be closed. He at once agreed, and only a side door was left open. Then he went out to procure samples of paper for his projected edition of Kropotkin’s “Great Revolution,” after having instructed his secretary, Cristobal Litran, to arrange with an engraver to meet him at the office at four in the afternoon, with refer ence to the illustrations for the same work. He lunched alone at the Maison Doree, a well-known restaurant in the Plaza de Catuluna. At four he kept the appointment with the en graver at his office, and asked the office messenger, a youth named Meseguer, to carry to the station for him a cardboard box “containing a dress for his wife.” This the young man did, preceding Ferrer to the station; but when Ferrer arrived, in time for the six o’clock train, behold! he found a notice stating that the line was cut and no trains running. Meseguer, seeing that he was much put about by this, offered to walk to Mongat and tell his family that all was well with him. He at first demurred, saying that it was too far to walk; but the lad insisted, and Ferrer at last accepted his offer. Then he went and dined at the Hotel Internacional on the Ramblas, spent the evening with friends at a cafe, and at last, soon after midnight, set forth to walk home, arriving at Mas Germinal at about five in the morning.

On August 17th, Commandant Vicente Llivina, charged with the duty of preparing the case against the “instigators, organizers, and directors” of the revolt, issued an advertisement calling upon Ferrer to appear before him; and Ferrer asserted that he thought of obeying the summons, but was persuaded not to do so. On August 29th, however, he read in the papers (according to his own account) that the Fiscal (prosecutor) of the Supreme Court, after a visit to Barcelona to investigate the disturbance, had declared, on his return to Madrid, that he, Ferrer, was “the organizer of the revolutionary movement in Barcelona and in the villages on the coast.”

Then [Ferrer proceeds] I could restrain myself no longer, and in spite of the advice of my friends, I resolved to present myself to the authorities and at last protest against such rumors and such affirmations, from however high a source they might proceed.”

He left his hiding-place on the night of August 31st, intending to walk some seven miles in order to take the inland railway line to Barcelona, his reason being that he was un known on this line, and had therefore a better chance of reaching Barcelona in freedom. His route, however, took him through his native village of Alella; and just outside it he was stopped by the village somaten (a sort of local vigilance committee), recognized, and arrested. After many indignities at the hands of his captors, he was taken, not to the examining commandant, as he requested, but to the Civil Governor, and after a brief examination was consigned to the Celular Prison.

William Archer begins here. Perceval Gibbon begins here.

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