Francisco Ferrer; his life, work and martyrdom, with message written ...

His Life and Work. ii
unruffled egoism. He regarded his employment simply
as a necessary means for providing him with subsistence,
thanks to which he could the better labor for the triumph
of that ideal which he ever bore within his soul, and from
the first he mingled actively in political life.
He took part in the insurrectionary attempt of Santa-
Coloma de Fames, and followed the movement directed
by General Villacampa, after the failure of which he took
refuge in Paris. There he became secretary to Ruiz
Zorilla, leader of the Spanish Republican party (1834-
1895), Zorilla could not pay for Francisco's work, and
he had to cast about for means of livelihood. With the
courage which never forsook him, whether he faced
material difficulties or the storm of bullets that ended
his life, he engaged in various undertakings, among other
things becoming a dealer in wines. He even returned
to Spain, where for a short time he lived an unsettled
life, at Madrid especially. Then he discovered his vocation
: he decided to be a teacher.
Very young he had suffered from the want of an education,
and so, when he had succeeded in filling the gaps
—through his own indomitable efforts and despite the
hostility of his superstitious and illiterate village neighbors,
the resistance of his family, and poverty itself in
many forms—he longed to share with his compatriots
what he had learned. His kind heart made him an excellent
mentor, an educator of the first rank, an apostle
of modern scientific instruction.
He could not hope to put his ideas into execution for
a long time to come in his own unhappy country. Paris
attracted him, and thither he returned, to become a teacher
in the Cercle Populaire d'Enseignement Laique, where
he very favorably impressed MM. Bourgeois and Ledrain
; then in the Association Philotechnicjue ; then in
the Grand-Orient, in the Rue Cadet, where he taught
every evening through 1897. He also gave private lessons,
which afforded him a modest competence.
Little as he had, Ferrer found that he had more than
enough for his own wants. So indifferent was he to
everything outside the work upon which his mind was
concentrated, that during that time he partook of but
one meal a day. Some of the habitues of the unpretentious
Blond eating-house, in the Rue du Faubourg-