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