Shortly after the initiation of these improvements in the Club, there
appeared in Castro Duro, without fuss, without noise, two rather
mysterious societies; the Benevolent Society of Saint Joseph and the
Agricultural Fund. In an instant the Benevolent Society of Saint Joseph
had a numerous array of members and patrons. All the great landholders
of the region, including Amparito’s father, bound themselves to employ
no labourers except those belonging to the Benevolent Society. In the
neighbouring villages the inhabitants joined _en masse_. At the same
time as this important society, Father Martin and his friends founded
the Castrian Agricultural Fund, whose purpose was to make loans, at a
low rate of interest, to small proprietors.
The two Catholic institutions set themselves up in rivalry to the
Workmen’s institution. The town was divided; the Catholics were more
numerous and richer; the Liberals more determined and enthusiastic. The
Catholics had given their upholders a resigned character.
Moreover, the name Catholic applied to the members of the two Clerical
societies made those who did not belong to them admit with great
tranquillity that _they_ were not Catholics.
The Clericals called their enemies Moncadists, and by implication
Schismatics, Atheists, and Anarchists. Inside the town there was a
Moncadist majority; in the environs everybody was a Catholic and
belonged to the Benevolent Society.
Generally the Catholics were abused in word and deed by the Moncadists;
the members of the Workmen’s Club held those of the Benevolent Society
for cowards and traitors. Doubtless Father Martín did not wish that
his followers should be distinguished by Christian meekness, and he
appointed a bully whom people called “Driveller” Juan warden of the
Benevolent Society. This Juan was a lad who lived without working; his
mother and his sisters were dressmakers, and he bled them for money, and
spent his life in taverns and gambling-dens.
“Driveller” began to insult members of the club, especially the boys,
and to defy them, on any pretext. Dr. Ortigosa went to see Cæsar and
explained the situation. “Driveller” was a coward, he didn’t venture
beyond a few peaceable workmen; but if he had defied “Furibis” or
“Panza” or any of the railway men that belonged to the Club, they
would have given him what he deserved. But in spite of “Driveller’s”
cowardice, he inspired terror among the young boys and apprentices.
Dr. Ortigosa was in favour of getting another bully, who could undertake
the job of cutting out “Driveller’s” guts.
“Whom are we to get?” asked Cæsar.
“We know somebody,” said Ortigosa.
“Who is it?”
“’ El Montes.’”
“What kind of a party is he?”
“A bandit like the other, but braver.”
_BANDITS_
“El Montes” had just come out of Ocaña.
He was a Manchegan, tall, strong, robust, and had been in the
penitentiary several times.
“And how do we manage ‘El Montes’?” asked Cæsar.
“We make him a servant at the Workmen’s Club.”
“He will corrupt the place.”
“Yes, that’s true. Then at the right moment we shall send him to the
Café del Comercio. They gamble at that café; he can go there and in two
or three days call a halt on ‘Driveller’ Juan.” “Good.”
“We must arrange for you to dismiss the new judge and put in some friend
of yours, and one fine day we will get a quarrel started and we will put
all Father Martin’s friends in jail.”
“You two play atrocious politics,” said Alzugaray, who was listening to
the conversation.
“It’s the only kind that will work,” replied Ortigosa. “This is
scientific politics. Ruffianism converted into philosophy. We are
playing a game of chess with Father Martin and we are going to see if we
can’t win it.”
“But, man, employing all these cut-throats!”
“My dear friend,” responded Cæsar, “political situations include such
things; with their heads they touch the noblest things, the safety of
one’s native land and the race; with their feet they touch the meanest
things, plots, vices, crimes. A politician of today still has to mingle
with reptiles, even though he be an honourable man.”
“Besides, we need have no scruples,” added Ortigosa; “the inhabitants of
Castro are laboratory guinea-pigs. We are going to experiment on them,
we are going to see if they can stand the Liberal serum.”
* * * * *
_THE TWO ASYLUMS_
A little after these rivalries between the Benevolent Society and the
Workmen’s Club, which stirred up every one’s passions to an extreme
never before known at Castro Duro, another motive for agitation
transpired.
There were two asylums in the town; the Municipal Aid and the Asylum of
the Little Sisters of the Poor.
The Municipal Aid had its own property and was wisely organized; the old
people were permitted to go out of the asylum, they had no uniform, and
from time to time they were allowed to drink a glass of something. In
the Little Sisters’ Home, on the contrary, discipline was most severe;
all the inmates had to go dressed in a horrible uniform, which the
poor hated; to be present, like a chorus, at the funerals of important
persons; pray at every step; and besides all that, they were forbidden
under pain of expulsion, to smoke or to drink anything.
So the result was that there were abandoned old wretches, who, if they
couldn’t get a place in the Aid, let themselves die in some corner,
rather than put on the uniform of the Little Sisters’ Home, degrading in
their eyes.
That asylum had no income, because its Catholic managers had eaten it
all up. In view of the institution’s bad economic condition, it occurred
to Father Martin to consolidate the two; to make one asylum of the
municipal and the religious, and to put it under the strict rule of the
religious one. What Father Martin wanted was that the Little Sisters
should have a finger in the whole thing, and that the income of one
institution should serve for both.
Cæsar threatened the mayor with dismissal if he accepted the
arrangement, and insisted that the Liberal councilmen should not permit
the fusion, which was to the great advantage of the Clerical party.
As a matter of fact, the plan came to nothing, and Cæsar treated the
Municipal Aid to two barrels of wine and tobacco in abundance, which
aroused great enthusiasm among the old people, who cheered for the
Deputy of their District.
Cæsar rode over the situation on horseback; but the Clerical campaign
strengthened at the same rate that popular sympathies went out toward
him. In almost every sermon there were allusions to the immorality and
the irreligion that reigned in the town. The support of the women was
sought and they were exhorted to influence their husbands, brothers, and
sons to resign from the Workmen’s Club.
The old pulpit oratory began to seem mild, and on the feast of the
Virgin of the Rock, a young preacher launched out, in the church, into
an eloquent, violent, and despotic sermon in which he threatened eternal
suffering to those who belonged to heretical clubs and would not return
to the loving bosom of the Church. The homily caused the greatest
impression, and there were a few unhappy mortals who, some days later,
were reported as dead or missing at the Workmen’s Club.