The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
CHAPTER LXIII 294<br />
Since some of our characters are still living and others have been lost sight of, a real epilogue is impossible.<br />
For the satisfaction of the groundlings we should gladly kill off all of them, beginning with Padre Salvi and<br />
ending with Doña Victorina, but this is not possible. Let them live! Anyhow, the country, not ourselves, has to<br />
support them.<br />
After Maria Clara entered the nunnery, Padre Damaso left his town to live in Manila, as did also Padre Salvi,<br />
who, while he awaits a vacant miter, preaches sometimes in the church of St. Clara, in whose nunnery he<br />
discharges the duties of an important office. Not many months had passed when Padre Damaso received an<br />
order from the Very Reverend Father Provincial to occupy a curacy in a remote province. It is related that he<br />
was so grievously affected <strong>by</strong> this that on the following day he was found dead in his bedchamber. Some said<br />
that he had died of an apoplectic stroke, others of a nightmare, but his physician dissipated all doubts <strong>by</strong><br />
declaring that he had died suddenly.<br />
None of our readers would now recognize Capitan Tiago. Weeks before Maria Clara took the vows he fell<br />
into a state of depression so great that he grew sad and thin, and became pensive and distrustful, like his<br />
former friend, Capitan Tinong. As soon as the doors of the nunnery closed he ordered his disconsolate cousin,<br />
Aunt Isabel, to collect whatever had belonged to his daughter and his dead wife and to go to make her home in<br />
Malabon or San Diego, since he wished to live alone thenceforward, tie then devoted himself passionately to<br />
liam-pó and the cockpit, and began to smoke opium. He no longer goes to Antipolo nor does he order any<br />
more masses, so Doña Patrocinia, his old rival, celebrates her triumph piously <strong>by</strong> snoring during the sermons.<br />
If at any time during the late afternoon you should walk along Calle Santo Cristo, you would see seated in a<br />
Chinese shop a small man, yellow, thin, and bent, with stained and dirty finger nails, gazing through dreamy,<br />
sunken eyes at the passers-<strong>by</strong> as if he did not see them. At nightfall you would see him rise with difficulty<br />
and, supporting himself on his cane, make his way to a narrow little <strong>by</strong>-street to enter a grimy building over<br />
the door of which may be seen in large red letters: FUMADERO PUBLICO DE ANFION. [173] This is that<br />
Capitan Tiago who was so celebrated, but who is now completely forgotten, even <strong>by</strong> the very senior sacristan<br />
himself.<br />
Doña Victorina has added to her false frizzes and to her Andalusization, if we may be permitted the term, the<br />
new custom of driving the carriage horses herself, obliging Don Tiburcio to remain quiet. Since many<br />
unfortunate accidents occurred on account of the weakness of her eyes, she has taken to wearing spectacles,<br />
which give her a marvelous appearance. <strong>The</strong> doctor has never been called upon again to attend any one and<br />
the servants see him many days in the week without teeth, which, as our readers know, is a very bad sign.<br />
Linares, the only defender of the hapless doctor, has long been at rest in Paco cemetery, the victim of<br />
dysentery and the harsh treatment of his cousin-in-law.<br />
<strong>The</strong> victorious alferez returned to Spain a major, leaving his amiable spouse in her flannel camisa, the color of<br />
which is now indescribable. <strong>The</strong> poor Ariadne, finding herself thus abandoned, also devoted herself, as did the<br />
daughter of Minos, to the cult of Bacchus and the cultivation of tobacco; she drinks and smokes with such<br />
fury that now not only the girls but even the old women and little children fear her.<br />
Probably our acquaintances of the town of San Diego are still alive, if they did not perish in the explosion of<br />
the steamer "Lipa," which was making a trip to the province. Since no one bothered himself to learn who the<br />
unfortunates were that perished in that catastrophe or to whom belonged the legs and arms left neglected on<br />
Convalescence Island and the banks of the river, we have no idea whether any acquaintance of our readers<br />
was among them or not. Along with the government and the press at the time, we are satisfied with the<br />
information that the only friar who was on the steamer was saved, and we do not ask for more. <strong>The</strong> principal<br />
thing for us is the existence of the virtuous priests, whose reign in the Philippines may God conserve for the<br />
good of our souls. [174]<br />
Of Maria Clara nothing more is known except that the sepulcher seems to guard her in its bosom. We have<br />
asked several persons of great influence in the holy nunnery of St. Clara, but no one has been willing to tell us