So also he was a member of the Vaccination
Board, which was composed of three physicians and seven laymen, among
these being the Archbishop and three Provincials. He was a brother in
all the confraternities of the common and of the most exalted dignity,
and, as we have seen, director of the Superior Commission of Primary
Instruction, which usually did not do anything--all these being quite
sufficient reason for the newspapers to heap adjectives upon him no
less when he traveled than when he sneezed.

In spite of so many offices, Don Custodio was not among those who
slept through the sessions, contenting themselves, like lazy and timid
delegates, in voting with the majority. The opposite of the numerous
kings of Europe who bear the title of King of Jerusalem, Don Custodio
made his dignity felt and got from it all the benefit possible, often
frowning, making his voice impressive, coughing out his words, often
taking up the whole session telling a story, presenting a project, or
disputing with a colleague who had placed himself in open opposition
to him. Although not past forty, he already talked of acting with
circumspection, of letting the figs ripen (adding under his breath
"pumpkins"), of pondering deeply and of stepping with careful tread,
of the necessity for understanding the country, because the nature of
the Indians, because the prestige of the Spanish name, because they
were first of all Spaniards, because religion--and so on. Remembered
yet in Manila is a speech of his when for the first time it was
proposed to light the city with kerosene in place of the old coconut
oil: in such an innovation, far from seeing the extinction of the
coconut-oil industry, he merely discerned the interests of a certain
alderman--because Don Custodio saw a long way--and opposed it with
all the resonance of his bucal cavity, considering the project too
premature and predicting great social cataclysms. No less celebrated
was his opposition to a sentimental serenade that some wished to tender
a certain governor on the eve of his departure. Don Custodio, who felt
a little resentment over some slight or other, succeeded in insinuating
the idea that the rising star was the mortal enemy of the setting one,
whereat the frightened promoters of the serenade gave it up.

One day he was advised to return to Spain to be cured of a liver
complaint, and the newspapers spoke of him as an Antaeus who had
to set foot in the mother country to gain n