The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER XX 95
CHAPTER XX
The Meeting in the Town Hall
The hall was about twelve to fifteen meters long by eight to ten wide. Its whitewashed walls were covered
with drawings in charcoal, more or less ugly and obscene, with inscriptions to complete their meanings.
Stacked neatly against the wall in one corner were to be seen about a dozen old flint-locks among rusty
swords and talibons, the armament of the cuadrilleros. [66] At one end of the hall there hung, half hidden by
soiled red curtains, a picture of his Majesty, the King of Spain. Underneath this picture, upon a wooden
platform, an old chair spread out its broken arms. In front of the chair was a wooden table spotted with ink
stains and whittled and carved with inscriptions and initials like the tables in the German taverns frequented
by students. Benches and broken chairs completed the furniture.
This is the hall of council, of judgment, and of torture, wherein are now gathered the officials of the town and
its dependent villages. The faction of old men does not mix with that of the youths, for they are mutually
hostile. They represent respectively the conservative and the liberal parties, save that their disputes assume in
the towns an extreme character.
"The conduct of the gobernadorcillo fills me with distrust," Don Filipo, the teniente-mayor and leader of the
liberal faction, was saying to his friends. "It was a deep-laid scheme, this thing of putting off the discussion of
expenses until the eleventh hour. Remember that we have scarcely eleven days left."
"And he has staved at the convento to hold a conference with the curate, who is sick," observed one of the
youths.
"It doesn't matter," remarked another. "We have everything prepared. Just so the plan of the old men doesn't
receive a majority--"
"I don't believe it will," interrupted Don Filipo, "as I shall present the plan of the old men myself!"
"What! What are you saying?" asked his surprised hearers.
"I said that if I speak first I shall present the plan of our rivals."
"But what about our plan?"
"I shall leave it to you to present ours," answered Don Filipo with a smile, turning toward a youthful cabeza
de barangay. [67] "You will propose it after I have been defeated."
"We don't understand you, sir," said his hearers, staring at him with doubtful looks.
"Listen," continued the liberal leader in a low voice to several near him. "This morning I met old Tasio and
the old man said to me: 'Your rivals hate you more than they do your ideas. Do you wish that a thing shall not
be done? Then propose it yourself, and though it were more useful than a miter, it would be rejected. Once
they have defeated you, have the least forward person in the whole gathering propose what you want, and
your rivals, in order to humiliate you, will accept it.' But keep quiet about it."
"But--"
"So I will propose the plan of our rivals and exaggerate it to the point of making it ridiculous. Ah, here come
Señor Ibarra and the schoolmaster."