The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER VI 46
hat and within the coat might have been seen the perspiring Capitan Tiago, waving his tasseled cane,
directing, arranging, and throwing everything into disorder with marvelous activity and a gravity even more
marvelous.
So the authorities saw in him a safe man, gifted with the best of dispositions, peaceful, tractable, and
obsequious, who read no books or newspapers from Spain, although he spoke Spanish well. Indeed, they
rather looked upon him with the feeling with which a poor student contemplates the worn-out heel of his old
shoe, twisted by his manner of walking. In his case there was truth in both the Christian and profane proverbs
beati pauperes spiritu and beati possidentes, [37] and there might well be applied to him that translation,
according to some people incorrect, from the Greek, "Glory to God in the highest and peace to men of
good-will on earth!" even though we shall see further along that it is not sufficient for men to have good-will
in order to live in peace.
The irreverent considered him a fool, the poor regarded him as a heartless and cruel exploiter of misery and
want, and his inferiors saw in him a despot and a tyrant. As to the women, ah, the women! Accusing rumors
buzzed through the wretched nipa huts, and it was said that wails and sobs might be heard mingled with the
weak cries of an infant. More than one young woman was pointed out by her neighbors with the finger of
scorn: she had a downcast glance and a faded cheek. But such things never robbed him of sleep nor did any
maiden disturb his peace. It was an old woman who made him suffer, an old woman who was his rival in piety
and who had gained from many curates such enthusiastic praises and eulogies as he in his best days had never
received.
Between Capitan Tiago and this widow, who had inherited from brothers and cousins, there existed a holy
rivalry which redounded to the benefit of the Church as the competition among the Pampanga steamers then
redounded to the benefit of the public. Did Capitan Tiago present to some Virgin a silver wand ornamented
with emeralds and topazes? At once Doña Patrocinio had ordered another of gold set with diamonds! If at the
time of the Naval procession [38] Capitan Tiago erected an arch with two façades, covered with ruffled cloth
and decorated with mirrors, glass globes, and chandeliers, then Doña Patrocinio would have another with four
facades, six feet higher, and more gorgeous hangings. Then he would fall back on his reserves, his strong
point, his specialty--masses with bombs and fireworks; whereat Doña Patrocinia could only gnaw at her lips
with her toothless gums, because, being exceedingly nervous, she could not endure the chiming of the bells
and still less the explosions of the bombs. While he smiled in triumph, she would plan her revenge and pay
the money of others to secure the best orators of the five Orders in Manila, the most famous preachers of the
Cathedral, and even the Paulists, [39] to preach on the holy days upon profound theological subjects to the
sinners who understood only the vernacular of the mariners. The partizans of Capitan Tiago would observe
that she slept during the sermon; but her adherents would answer that the sermon was paid for in advance, and
by her, and that in any affair payment was the prime requisite. At length, she had driven him from the field
completely by presenting to the church three andas of gilded silver, each one of which cost her over three
thousand pesos. Capitan Tiago hoped that the old woman would breathe her last almost any day, or that she
would lose five or six of her lawsuits, so that he might be alone in serving God; but unfortunately the best
lawyers of the Real Audiencia looked after her interests, and as to her health, there was no part of her that
could be attacked by sickness; she seemed to be a steel wire, no doubt for the edification of souls, and she
hung on in this vale of tears with the tenacity of a boil on the skin. Her adherents were secure in the belief that
she would be canonized at her death and that Capitan Tiago himself would have to worship her at the
altars--all of which he agreed to and cheerfully promised, provided only that she die soon.
Such was Capitan Tiago in the days of which we write. As for the past, he was the only son of a sugar-planter
of Malabon, wealthy enough, but so miserly that he would not spend a cent to educate his son, for which
reason the little Santiago had been the servant of a good Dominican, a worthy man who had tried to train him
in all of good that he knew and could teach. When he had reached the happy stage of being known among his
acquaintances as a logician, that is, when he began to study logic, the death of his protector, soon followed by
that of his father, put an end to his studies and he had to turn his attention to business affairs. He married a