Unquestionably did Rizal
demonstrate himself to be a seer and prophet when he applied to such
a system the story of Babylon and the fateful handwriting on the wall!
But forces had been loosed that would not be so suppressed, the time
had gone by when such wild methods of repression would serve. The
destruction of the native leaders, culminating in the executions
of Rizal and Roxas, produced a counter-effect by rousing the
Tagalogs, good and bad alike, to desperate fury, and the aftermath
was frightful. The better classes were driven to take part in the
rebellion, and Cavite especially became a veritable slaughter-pen,
as the contest settled down into a hideous struggle for mutual
extermination. Dark Andres went his wild way to perish by the
violence he had himself invoked, a prey to the rising ambition of
a young leader of considerable culture and ability, a schoolmaster
named Emilio Aguinaldo. His Katipunan hovered fitfully around Manila,
for a time even drawing to itself in their desperation some of the
better elements of the population, only to find itself sold out and
deserted by its leaders, dying away for a time; but later, under
changed conditions, it reappeared in strange metamorphosis as the
rallying-center for the largest number of Filipinos who have ever
gathered together for a common purpose, and then finally went down
before those thin grim lines in khaki with sharp and sharpest shot
clearing away the wreck of the old, blazing the way for the new:
the broadening sweep of "Democracy announcing, in rifle-volleys
death-winged, under her Star Banner, to the tune of Yankee-doodle-do,
that she is born, and, whirlwind-like, will envelop the whole world!"
MANILA, December 1, 1909
What? Does no Caesar, does no Achilles, appear on your stage now?
Not an Andromache e'en, not an Orestes, my friend?
No! there is nought to be seen there but parsons, and syndics of
commerce,
Secretaries perchance, ensigns and majors of horse.
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