With the money he made on the market, Cæsar was making himself the
master of Castro Duro. He constantly assumed a more Liberal attitude in
the Chamber, and was in a position to abandon the Conservative majority,
on any pretext.
His plan of campaign at Castro Duro corresponded to this political
position of his: he had rehabilitated the Workmen’s Club and paid its
debts. The Club had been founded by the workmen of a thread factory,
now shut. The number of members was very small and the labourers and
employees of the railway and some weavers were its principal support.
On learning that it was about to be closed for lack of funds, Cæsar
promised to support it. He thought of endowing the Club with a library,
and installing a school in the country. On seeing that the Deputy was
patronizing the Club, a lot of labourers of all kinds joined it. A new
governing board was named, of which Cæsar was honourary president, and
the Workmen’s Club re-arose from its ashes. The Republicans and the
little group of Socialists, almost all weavers, were on Cæsar’s side
and promised to vote for him in the coming election.
Various Republicans who went to Madrid to call on Cæsar, told him
he ought to come out as a Republican. They would vote for him with
enthusiasm.
“No; why should I?” Cæsar used to answer. “Are we going to do any more
at Castro by my being a Republican than when I am not one? Besides the
fact that I should not be elected on that ticket and should thus have no
further influence, to me the forms of a government are indifferent;
I don’t even care whether it has a true ideal or a false one. What I
do want is for the town to progress; whether by means of a dream or
by means of a reality. A politician should seek for efficiency before
asking anything else, and at present the Republican dream would not be
efficient at Castro.”
Most of the Republicans did not go away very well satisfied with what
Cæsar had said; and after leaving him, they would say:
“He is a very curious person, but he favours us and we’ll have to follow
him.”
The reopening of the Workmen’s Club in Castro was the chance for an
event. Cæsar was in favour of inaugurating the Club without any
celebration, without attracting the attention of the Clericals; but the
members of the Club, on the contrary, wished to give the reactionaries a
dose to swallow, and Cæsar could not but promise his participation in
the inauguration.
“Would you like to come to Castro?” Cæsar said to Alzugaray.
“What are you going to do there?”
“We are going to open a Club.”
“Are you going to speak?”
“Yes.”
“All right. Let’s go, so that I can hear you. Probably you will do it
badly enough.”
“It’s possible.”
“And what you say won’t please anybody.”
“That’s possible, too. But that makes no difference. You will come?”
“Yes. Will there be picturesque speakers?”
“There are some, but they are not going to speak. There is one, Uncle
Chinaman, who is a marvel. In describing the actual condition of Spain,
he once uttered this authoritative phrase: ‘Clericalism in the zenith,
immorality in high places, the debt floating more every day,...’”
“That’s very good.” “It certainly is. He made another happy phrase,
criticizing the Spanish administration. ‘For what reason do they write
so many useless papers?’ he said. ‘So that rats, the obscene reptiles,
can go on eating them....’”
“That’s very good too.”
“He is a man without any education, but very intelligent. So you are
going to come?”
“Yes.”
“Then we will meet at the station.”