WOMEN FIGHT SAVAGELY.
Witnesses Describe Scenes of Carnage and Conflagration in Barcelona.
CERBERE, France, July 30. — The first direct dispatch from Barcelona since the fighting began there reached this place to-day, and is without date. It says:
«Barcelona has been a perfect hell. Half the population is terrorized, and the other half is mad with blood. The troops of the garrison, amid shouts of approval from the mob, repeatedly refused to fire on the people, and the work of repression fell upon the police and civil guard. They charged the revolutionaries and used their firearms freely everywhere, but numbers were against them. As this dispatch is sent the streets are in possession of the barricaded insurgents. The destruction of property has been great. Barcelona is completely isolated and running short of food.»
Exactly what stage of the proceedings this dispatch covers it is impossible to say.
The officers of the steamer Scutari arriving at Marseilles to-day from Barcelona, which port they left Wednesday afternoon, say the collision between the troops and the rioters began on Monday morning immediately after the declaration of a general strike. The rioters tore up the pavements and built barricades behind which they fought desperately. The troops and civil guard took many of the barriers by assault, and by night had brought about some semblance of order. Rigorous orders were issued by the authorities, the people being instructed to remain in their homes on penalty of being shot on sight after dark.
On Tuesday morning, the Scutari’s officers say, the streets were filled with cavalry, infantry, and artillery, who gradually cleared the principal streets and squares, notably the Rambla Santa Monica and [Plaza de Cataluña], placing the batteries and machine guns so as to command the adjacent streets. The loss of life during these operations was heavy. The rioters, as they were driven back, built new barricades as fast as the old ones were captured, and entrenched themselves in the suburbs of San Andre, San Antonio, [Badalona], and elsewhere, holding the troops at bay in spite of the raking fire of the artillery.
Everywhere flames broke out from churches, convents, and factories, and the skies at night were scarlet with the reflections of the fires. During Tuesday night the rattle of musketry, the drumming of machine guns, and the booming of cannon were ceaseless, and fierce fighting was in progress when the Scutari sailed.
All Convents Burned But One.
Passengers just arrived at Cerbere from Gerona, who went to San Felice from Barcelona by sea and then on foot to Gerona, where they took passage on a train, say the revolution was in full swing when the left the City of Barcelona. The «House of the People,» the headquarters of the rioters, was razed to the ground by artillery, and all of the convents except one in Calle Caspe, which was defended by Jesuits and a civil guard, were burned.
The Montjuich forts bombarded the Rambla and the Paseos. Ten thousand revolutionists were daily fighting in the streets under the direction of a Revolutionary Committee, which had charge of the movement. The Caldos Bridge was blown up by dynamite. At Lesomatin an armed civil body had thrown its fortunes with the revolutionaries and was holding the troops and civil guards at Barcelona.
From other towns on the Franco-Spanish frontier come many reports confirming what has been said of the terrible fury of the women throughout Catalonia. At Barcelona they fought behind the barricades with the men, urging them to fight to the death. Everywhere they resisted searches by gendarmes for recruits for the reserves, barring the doors of their houses and firing at the soldiers from the windows.