McCLURE'S, ARCHER AND FERRER 59 



Mr, Archer makes much of the fact that the recognition took 

 place between seven-thirty and eight-thirty, according to the 

 testimony, and reasons that it was too dark to see any man's 

 features then. Now the sun went down in Barcelona about 

 seven-twenty during the week of July 26th, and twilight lasts 

 until nearly nine o'clock at that period of the year. Barcelona 

 is situated somewhere near the latitude of Providence or Bos- 

 ton ; and one can test the point any time between July 26 and 

 31 of the year. 



Again Mr. Archer, in reviewing this evidence, says that 

 Mongat, where "Mas Germinal" is situated, is "eleven dusty 

 miles" from Barcelona. It is only eleven kilometres, so Mr. 

 Archer's pen must have slipped unwittingly, as that would be 

 but about six miles from the Rambla or Plaza de Colon, in the 

 very heart of Barcelona. He also says that, "the authorities 

 had carefully refused to admit the evidence of Ferrer's family, 

 who (now, in 1910) assert that he never quitted Mas Ger- 

 minal that day." Yet on the very morning of the 27th he took 

 Francisco Domenech, the barber, to breakfast at Badalona, 

 which is a village two miles or more from Mongat on the 

 way to Barcelona. To walk all the way from Mongat to Barce- 

 lona requires only from two to two and a half hours. Hence 

 it may very well be that Ferrer, now that things were becoming 

 lively in Barcelona, stayed away for a large portion of the 

 day — the heated portion, it will be perceived — and in the after- 

 noon went into Barcelona. His "family" could easily swear 

 he was at home that day, and Senor Colldeforns likewise see 

 him "captaining a group" on the Rambla in the city. Ferrer, 

 with his experience in the Morral bomb case, and in previous 

 cases, would naturally be strong on making out an alibi. 



And just here Mr. Archer has put in a piece of innuendo. 

 There is nothing in this second article which directly asserts 

 any connection between the Church or the orders and Ferrer's 

 trial. But he found it necessary to put a head-line, "The 

 Catholic Journalist," and to repeat the phrase two or three 

 times in that part of the article. It supplies an apparent miss- 

 ing link, because it connects the Catholic Church in some indefi- 

 nite way with the prosecution. Well, the army officers were 

 Catholics, the court officials were Catholics, all the witnesses 

 were Catholics where they were not the anarchist and atheist 

 companions of Ferrer. Why single out the journalist who 



