A bit disappointed, he left the “Water Pumping Company” to go its way,
and devoted himself entirely to things that he could carry out alone.
The first one he tried was establishing a circulating library of
technical books on trades and agriculture, and of polite and scientific
literature, in the Workmen’s Club.
“They will sell the books,” everybody said; “they will get them all
soiled, and tear out the leaves....”
Cæsar had the volumes bound, and at the end of each he had ten or
twelve blank sheets put in, in case the reader wished to write notes.
The experiment began; predictions were not fulfilled; the books came
back to the library untorn and unspotted and with some very ingenuous
notes in them. Lots of people took out books.
The clerical element immediately protested; the priests said in the
pulpit that to send any chance book to working people’s houses without
examining it first, was to lead people into error. Dr. Ortigosa retorted
that Science did not need the approval of sacristans. As, in spite
of the clerical element’s advice, people kept on reading, there were
various persons that took out books and filled them with obscene
drawings and tore out illustrations. Dr. Ortigosa sent Cæsar a letter
informing him what was happening, and Cæsar answered that he must limit
the distribution of books to the members of the Workmen’s Club and
people that were known. He bade him replace the six or seven books
abused, and continued to send new ones.
The ferment kept the city stirred up; there were no end of heated
discussions; lectures were given in the Club, and Dr. Ortigosa’s paper,
_The Protest_, came to life again.
“I am with you in whatever will agitate the people’s ideas,” wrote
Cæsar; “but if they start to play orators and revolutionists, and
you folks come along with pedantic notions, then I for my part shall
drop the whole thing.”
When Cæsar was in Castro, he spent his evenings at the Workmen’s Club.
They gave moving pictures and frequent balls. Cæsar did not miss one of
the Club’s entertainments. The men came to him for advice, and the
girls and the little boys bowed to him affectionately. There was great
enthusiasm over him.