The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER XXXIV 166
"Well, I don't know anything about architecture," interrupted Padre Damaso, "but I laugh at architects and the
fools who employ them. Here you have it--I drew the plan of this church and it's perfectly constructed, so an
English jeweler who stopped in the convento one day assured me. To draw a plan one needs only to have two
fingers' breadth of forehead."
"Nevertheless," answered the alcalde, seeing that Ibarra was silent, "when we consider certain buildings, as,
for example, this schoolhouse, we need an expert."
"Get out with your experts!" exclaimed the priest with a sneer. "Only a fool needs experts! One must be more
of a brute than the Indians, who build their own houses, not to know how to construct four walls and put a
roof on top of them. That's all a schoolhouse is!"
The guests gazed at Ibarra, who had turned pale, but he continued as if in conversation with Maria Clara.
"But your Reverence should consider--"
"See now," went on the Franciscan, not allowing the alcalde to continue, "look how one of our lay brothers,
the most stupid that we have, has constructed a hospital, good, pretty, and cheap. He made them work hard
and paid only eight cuartos a day even to those who had to come from other towns. He knew how to handle
them, not like a lot of cranks and little mestizos who are spoiling them by paying three or four reals."
"Does your Reverence say that he paid only eight cuartos? Impossible!" The alcalde was trying to change the
course of the conversation.
"Yes, sir, and those who pride themselves on being good Spaniards ought to imitate him. You see now, since
the Suez Canal was opened, the corruption that has come in here. Formerly, when we had to double the Cape,
neither so many vagabonds came here nor so many others went from here to become vagabonds."
"But, Padre Damaso--"
"You know well enough what the Indian is--just as soon as he gets a little learning he sets himself up as a
doctor! All these little fellows that go to Europe--"
"But, listen, your Reverence!" interrupted the alcalde, who was becoming nervous over the aggressiveness of
such talk.
"Every one ends up as he deserves," the friar continued. "The hand of God is manifest in the midst of it all,
and one must be blind not to see it. Even in this life the fathers of such vipers receive their punishment, they
die in jail ha, ha! As we might say, they have nowhere--"
But he did not finish the sentence. Ibarra, livid, had been following him with his gaze and upon hearing this
allusion to his father jumped up and dropped a heavy hand on the priest's head, so that he fell back stunned.
The company was so filled with surprise and fright that no one made any movement to interfere.
"Keep off!" cried the youth in a terrible voice, as he caught up a sharp knife and placed his foot on the neck of
the friar, who was recovering from the shock of his fall. "Let him who values his life keep away!"
The youth was beside himself. His whole body trembled and his eyes rolled threateningly in their sockets.
Fray Damaso arose with an effort, but the youth caught him by the neck and shook him until he again fell
doubled over on his knees.
"Señor Ibarra! Señor Ibarra!" stammered some. But no one, not even the alferez himself, dared to approach