El Filibusterismo. English

  CHAPTER XIV

  IN THE HOUSE OF THE STUDENTS

  The house where Makaraig lived was worth visiting. Large and spacious,with two entresols provided with elegant gratings, it seemed to bea school during the first hours of the morning and pandemonium fromten o'clock on. During the boarders' recreation hours, from the lowerhallway of the spacious entrance up to the main floor, there was abubbling of laughter, shouts, and movement. Boys in scanty clothingplayed _sipa_ or practised gymnastic exercises on improvised trapezes,while on the staircase a fight was in progress between eight or ninearmed with canes, sticks, and ropes, but neither attackers nor attackeddid any great damage, their blows generally falling sidewise upon theshoulders of the Chinese pedler who was there selling his outlandishmixtures and indigestible pastries. Crowds of boys surrounded him,pulled at his already disordered queue, snatched pies from him,haggled over the prices, and committed a thousand deviltries. TheChinese yelled, swore, forswore, in all the languages he could jabber,not omitting his own; he whimpered, laughed, pleaded, put on a smilingface when an ugly one would not serve, or the reverse.

  He cursed them as devils, savages, _no kilistanos_ [33] but thatmattered nothing. A whack would bring his face around smiling, andif the blow fell only upon his shoulders he would calmly continuehis business transactions, contenting himself with crying out tothem that he was not in the game, but if it struck the flat basketon which were placed his wares, then he would swear never to comeagain, as he poured out upon them all the imprecations and anathemasimaginable. Then the boys would redouble their efforts to make himrage the more, and when at last his vocabulary was exhausted and theywere satiated with his fearful mixtures, they paid him religiously,and sent him away happy, winking, chuckling to himself, and receivingas caresses the light blows from their canes that the students gavehim as tokens of farewell.

  Concerts on the piano and violin, the guitar, and the accordion,alternated with the continual clashing of blades from the fencinglessons. Around a long, wide table the students of the Ateneo preparedtheir compositions or solved their problems by the side of otherswriting to their sweethearts on pink perforated note-paper coveredwith drawings. Here one was composing a melodrama at the side ofanother practising on the flute, from which he drew wheezy notes. Overthere, the older boys, students in professional courses, who affectedsilk socks and embroidered slippers, amused themselves in teasingthe smaller boys by pulling their ears, already red from repeatedfillips, while two or three held down a little fellow who yelled andcried, defending himself with his feet against being reduced to thecondition in which he was born, kicking and howling. In one room,around a small table, four were playing _revesino_ with laughter andjokes, to the great annoyance of another who pretended to be studyinghis lesson but who was in reality waiting his turn to play.

  Still another came in with exaggerated wonder, scandalized as heapproached the table. "How wicked you are! So early in the morningand already gambling! Let's see, let's see! You fool, take it withthe three of spades!" Closing his book, he too joined in the game.

  Cries and blows were heard. Two boys were fighting in the adjoiningroom--a lame student who was very sensitive about his infirmity andan unhappy newcomer from the provinces who was just commencing hisstudies. He was working over a treatise on philosophy and readinginnocently in a loud voice, with a wrong accent, the Cartesianprinciple: "_Cogito, ergo sum!_"

  The little lame boy (_el cojito_) took this as an insult and the othersintervened to restore peace, but in reality only to sow discord andcome to blows themselves.

  In the dining-room a young man with a can of sardines, a bottle ofwine, and the provisions that he had just brought from his town, wasmaking heroic efforts to the end that his friends might participatein his lunch, while they were offering in their turn heroic resistanceto his invitation. Others were bathing on the azotea, playing firemenwith the water from the well, and joining in combats with pails ofwater, to the great delight of the spectators.

  But the noise and shouts gradually died away with the coming of leadingstudents, summoned by Makaraig to report to them the progress of theacademy of Castilian. Isagani was cordially greeted, as was also thePeninsular, Sandoval, who had come to Manila as a government employeeand was finishing his studies, and who had completely identifiedhimself with the cause of the Filipino students. The barriers thatpolitics had established between the races had disappeared in theschoolroom as though dissolved by the zeal of science and youth.

  From lack of lyceums and scientific, literary, or political centers,Sandoval took advantage of all the meetings to cultivate his greatoratorical gifts, delivering speeches and arguing on any subject,to draw forth applause from his friends and listeners. At that momentthe subject of conversation was the instruction in Castilian, but asMakaraig had not yet arrived conjecture was still the order of the day.

  "What can have happened?"

  "What has the General decided?"

  "Has he refused the permit?"

  "Has Padre Irene or Padre Sibyla won?"

  Such were the questions they asked one another, questions that couldbe answered only by Makaraig.

  Among the young men gathered together there were optimists like Isaganiand Sandoval, who saw the thing already accomplished and talked ofcongratulations and praise from the government for the patriotism ofthe students--outbursts of optimism that led Juanito Pelaez to claimfor himself a large part of the glory of founding the society.

  All this was answered by the pessimist Pecson, a chubby youth witha wide, clownish grin, who spoke of outside influences, whether theBishop A., the Padre B., or the Provincial C., had been consulted ornot, whether or not they had advised that the whole association shouldbe put in jail--a suggestion that made Juanito Pelaez so uneasy thathe stammered out, "_Carambas_, don't you drag me into--"

  Sandoval, as a Peninsular and a liberal, became furious atthis. "But pshaw!" he exclaimed, "that is holding a bad opinion of hisExcellency! I know that he's quite a friar-lover, but in such a matteras this he won't let the friars interfere. Will you tell me, Pecson, onwhat you base your belief that the General has no judgment of his own?"

  "I didn't say that, Sandoval," replied Pecson, grinning until heexposed his wisdom-tooth. "For me the General has _his own_ judgment,that is, the judgment of all those within his reach. That's plain!"

  "You're dodging--cite me a fact, cite me a fact!" criedSandoval. "Let's get away from hollow arguments, from empty phrases,and get on the solid ground of facts,"--this with an elegantgesture. "Facts, gentlemen, facts! The rest is prejudice--I won'tcall it filibusterism."

  Pecson smiled like one of the blessed as he retorted, "There comes thefilibusterism. But can't we enter into a discussion without resortingto accusations?"

  Sandoval protested in a little extemporaneous speech, again demandingfacts.

  "Well, not long ago there was a dispute between some private personsand certain friars, and the acting Governor rendered a decisionthat it should be settled by the Provincial of the Order concerned,"replied Pecson, again breaking out into a laugh, as though he weredealing with an insignificant matter, he cited names and dates,and promised documents that would prove how justice was dispensed.

  "But, on what ground, tell me this, on what ground can they refusepermission for what plainly appears to be extremely useful andnecessary?" asked Sandoval.

  Pecson shrugged his shoulders. "It's that it endangers the integrityof the fatherland," he replied in the tone of a notary reading anallegation.

  "That's pretty good! What has the integrity of the fatherland to dowith the rules of syntax?"

  "The Holy Mother Church has learned doctors--what do I know? Perhapsit is feared that we may come to understand the laws so that we canobey them. What will become of the Philippines on the day when weunderstand one another?"

  Sandoval did not relish the dialectic and jesting turn of theconversation; along that path could rise no speech worth thewhile. "Don't make a joke of things!" he exclaimed. "This is a
serious matter."

  "The Lord deliver me from joking when there are friars concerned!"

  "But, on what do you base--"

  "On the fact that, the hours for the classes having to come atnight," continued Pecson in the same tone, as if he were quotingknown and recognized formulas, "there may be invoked as an obstaclethe immorality of the thing, as was done in the case of the schoolat Malolos."

  "Another! But don't the classes of the Academy of Drawing, and thenovenaries and the processions, cover themselves with the mantleof night?"

  "The scheme affects the dignity of the University," went on the chubbyyouth, taking no notice of the question.

  "Affects nothing! The University has to accommodate itself to the needsof the students. And granting that, what is a university then? Is itan institution to discourage study? Have a few men banded themselvestogether in the name of learning and instruction in order to preventothers from becoming enlightened?"

  "The fact is that movements initiated from below are regarded asdiscontent--"

  "What about projects that come from above?" interpolated one of thestudents. "There's the School of Arts and Trades!"

  "Slowly, slowly, gentlemen," protested Sandoval. "I'm not afriar-lover, my liberal views being well known, but render unto Caesarthat which is Caesar's. Of that School of Arts and Trades, of which Ihave been the most enthusiastic supporter and the realization of whichI shall greet as the first streak of dawn for these fortunate islands,of that School of Arts and Trades the friars have taken charge--"

  "Or the cat of the canary, which amounts to the same thing," addedPecson, in his turn interrupting the speech.

  "Get out!" cried Sandoval, enraged at the interruption, which hadcaused him to lose the thread of his long, well-rounded sentence. "Aslong as we hear nothing bad, let's not be pessimists, let's not beunjust, doubting the liberty and independence of the government."

  Here he entered upon a defense in beautiful phraseology of thegovernment and its good intentions, a subject that Pecson dared notbreak in upon.

  "The Spanish government," he said among other things, "has givenyou everything, it has denied you nothing! We had absolutism inSpain and you had absolutism here; the friars covered our soil withconventos, and conventos occupy a third part of Manila; in Spainthe garrote prevails and here the garrote is the extreme punishment;we are Catholics and we have made you Catholics; we were scholasticsand scholasticism sheds its light in your college halls; in short,gentlemen, we weep when you weep, we suffer when you suffer, we havethe same altars, the same courts, the same punishments, and it isonly just that we should give you our rights and our joys."

  As no one interrupted him, he became more and more enthusiastic,until he came to speak of the future of the Philippines.

  "As I have said, gentlemen, the dawn is not far distant. Spain is nowbreaking the eastern sky for her beloved Philippines, and the timesare changing, as I positively know, faster than we imagine. Thisgovernment, which, according to you, is vacillating and weak, shouldbe strengthened by our confidence, that we may make it see that it isthe custodian of our hopes. Let us remind it by our conduct (shouldit ever forget itself, which I do not believe can happen) that wehave faith in its good intentions and that it should be guided by noother standard than justice and the welfare of all the governed. No,gentlemen," he went on in a tone more and more declamatory, "we mustnot admit at all in this matter the possibility of a consultation withother more or less hostile entities, as such a supposition would implyour resignation to the fact. Your conduct up to the present has beenfrank, loyal, without vacillation, above suspicion; you have addressedit simply and directly; the reasons you have presented could not bemore sound; your aim is to lighten the labor of the teachers in thefirst years and to facilitate study among the hundreds of studentswho fill the college halls and for whom one solitary professor cannotsuffice. If up to the present the petition has not been granted, ithas been for the reason, as I feel sure, that there has been a greatdeal of material accumulated, but I predict that the campaign iswon, that the summons of Makaraig is to announce to us the victory,and tomorrow we shall see our efforts crowned with the applause andappreciation of the country, and who knows, gentlemen, but that thegovernment may confer upon you some handsome decoration of merit,benefactors as you are of the fatherland!"

  Enthusiastic applause resounded. All immediately believed in thetriumph, and many in the decoration.

  "Let it be remembered, gentlemen," observed Juanito, "that I was oneof the first to propose it."

  The pessimist Pecson was not so enthusiastic. "Just so we don't getthat decoration on our ankles," he remarked, but fortunately forPelaez this comment was not heard in the midst of the applause.

  When they had quieted down a little, Pecson replied, "Good, good,very good, but one supposition: if in spite of all that, the Generalconsults and consults and consults, and afterwards refuses the permit?"

  This question fell like a dash of cold water. All turned to Sandoval,who was taken aback. "Then--" he stammered.

  "Then?"

  "Then," he exclaimed in a burst of enthusiasm, still excited by theapplause, "seeing that in writing and in printing it boasts of desiringyour enlightenment, and yet hinders and denies it when called upon tomake it a reality--then, gentlemen, your efforts will not have beenin vain, you will have accomplished what no one else has been ableto do. Make them drop the mask and fling down the gauntlet to you!"

  "Bravo, bravo!" cried several enthusiastically.

  "Good for Sandoval! Hurrah for the gauntlet!" added others.

  "Let them fling down the gauntlet to us!" repeated Pecsondisdainfully. "But afterwards?"

  Sandoval seemed to be cut short in his triumph, but with the vivacitypeculiar to his race and his oratorical temperament he had animmediate reply.

  "Afterwards?" he asked. "Afterwards, if none of the Filipinos dareto accept the challenge, then I, Sandoval, in the name of Spain, willtake up the gauntlet, because such a policy would give the lie to thegood intentions that she has always cherished toward her provinces,and because he who is thus faithless to the trust reposed in him andabuses his unlimited authority deserves neither the protection ofthe fatherland nor the support of any Spanish citizen!"

  The enthusiasm of his hearers broke all bounds. Isagani embraced him,the others following his example. They talked of the fatherland,of union, of fraternity, of fidelity. The Filipinos declared thatif there were only Sandovals in Spain all would be Sandovals in thePhilippines. His eyes glistened, and it might well be believed that ifat that moment any kind of gauntlet had been flung at him he would haveleaped upon any kind of horse to ride to death for the Philippines.

  The "cold water" alone replied: "Good, that's very good, Sandoval. Icould also say the same if I were a Peninsular, but not being one,if I should say one half of what you have, you yourself would takeme for a filibuster."

  Sandoval began a speech in protest, but was interrupted.

  "Rejoice, friends, rejoice! Victory!" cried a youth who entered atthat moment and began to embrace everybody.

  "Rejoice, friends! Long live the Castilian tongue!"

  An outburst of applause greeted this announcement. They fell toembracing one another and their eyes filled with tears. Pecson alonepreserved his skeptical smile.

  The bearer of such good news was Makaraig, the young man at the headof the movement. This student occupied in that house, by himself, tworooms, luxuriously furnished, and had his servant and a cochero to lookafter his carriage and horses. He was of robust carriage, of refinedmanners, fastidiously dressed, and very rich. Although studying lawonly that he might have an academic degree, he enjoyed a reputation fordiligence, and as a logician in the scholastic way had no cause to envythe most frenzied quibblers of the University faculty. Neverthelesshe was not very far behind in regard to modern ideas and progress,for his fortune enabled him to have all the books and magazines that awatchful censor was unable to keep out. With these qualifications andhis reputation for
courage, his fortunate associations in his earlieryears, and his refined and delicate courtesy, it was not strange thathe should exercise such great influence over his associates and thathe should have been chosen to carry out such a difficult undertakingas that of the instruction in Castilian.

  After the first outburst of enthusiasm, which in youth always takeshold in such exaggerated forms, since youth finds everything beautiful,they wanted to be informed how the affair had been managed.

  "I saw Padre Irene this morning," said Makaraig with a certain airof mystery.

  "Hurrah for Padre Irene!" cried an enthusiastic student.

  "Padre Irene," continued Makaraig, "has told me about everything thattook place at Los Banos. It seems that they disputed for at leasta week, he supporting and defending our case against all of them,against Padre Sibyla, Padre Fernandez, Padre Salvi, the General,the jeweler Simoun--"

  "The jeweler Simoun!" interrupted one of his listeners. "What has thatJew to do with the affairs of our country? We enrich him by buying--"

  "Keep quiet!" admonished another impatiently, anxious to learn howPadre Irene had been able to overcome such formidable opponents.

  "There were even high officials who were opposed to our project,the Head Secretary, the Civil Governor, Quiroga the Chinaman--"

  "Quiroga the Chinaman! The pimp of the--"

  "Shut up!"

  "At last," resumed Makaraig, "they were going to pigeonhole thepetition and let it sleep for months and months, when Padre Ireneremembered the Superior Commission of Primary Instruction and proposed,since the matter concerned the teaching of the Castilian tongue,that the petition be referred to that body for a report upon it."

  "But that Commission hasn't been in operation for a long time,"observed Pecson.

  "That's exactly what they replied to Padre Irene, and he answeredthat this was a good opportunity to revive it, and availing himselfof the presence of Don Custodio, one of its members, he proposed onthe spot that a committee should be appointed. Don Custodio's activitybeing known and recognized, he was named as arbiter and the petitionis now in his hands. He promised that he would settle it this month."

  "Hurrah for Don Custodio!"

  "But suppose Don Custodio should report unfavorably upon it?" inquiredthe pessimist Pecson.

  Upon this they had not reckoned, being intoxicated with the thoughtthat the matter would not be pigeonholed, so they all turned toMakaraig to learn how it could be arranged.

  "The same objection I presented to Padre Irene, but with his sly smilehe said to me: 'We've won a great deal, we have succeeded in gettingthe matter on the road to a decision, the opposition sees itselfforced to join battle.' If we can bring some influence to bear uponDon Custodio so that he, in accordance with his liberal tendencies,may report favorably, all is won, for the General showed himself tobe absolutely neutral."

  Makaraig paused, and an impatient listener asked, "How can weinfluence him?"

  "Padre Irene pointed out to me two ways--"

  "Quiroga," some one suggested.

  "Pshaw, great use Quiroga--"

  "A fine present."

  "No, that won't do, for he prides himself upon being incorruptible."

  "Ah, yes, I know!" exclaimed Pecson with a laugh. "Pepay the dancinggirl."

  "Ah, yes, Pepay the dancing girl," echoed several.

  This Pepay was a showy girl, supposed to be a great friend ofDon Custodio. To her resorted the contractors, the employees, theintriguers, when they wanted to get something from the celebratedcouncilor. Juanito Pelaez, who was also a great friend of the dancinggirl, offered to look after the matter, but Isagani shook his head,saying that it was sufficient that they had made use of Padre Ireneand that it would be going too far to avail themselves of Pepay insuch an affair.

  "Show us the other way."

  "The other way is to apply to his attorney and adviser, Senor Pasta,the oracle before whom Don Custodio bows."

  "I prefer that," said Isagani. "Senor Pasta is a Filipino, and wasa schoolmate of my uncle's. But how can we interest him?"

  "There's the _quid_," replied Makaraig, looking earnestly atIsagani. "Senor Pasta has a dancing girl--I mean, a seamstress."

  Isagani again shook his head.

  "Don't be such a puritan," Juanito Pelaez said to him. "The endjustifies the means! I know the seamstress, Matea, for she has a shopwhere a lot of girls work."

  "No, gentlemen," declared Isagani, "let's first employ decentmethods. I'll go to Senor Pasta and, if I don't accomplish anything,then you can do what you wish with the dancing girls and seamstresses."

  They had to accept this proposition, agreeing that Isagani shouldtalk to Senor Pasta that very day, and in the afternoon report tohis associates at the University the result of the interview.