taking the sweet, earnest face between her bands, to shower down kisses upon it, kisses mingled with tears, "no, not in the least. It is twelve long years since, now; Heaven only knows how long to me! Years when, but for you, my darling, I should have sunk beneath my burden. I think I should have gone mad. In all those years you have been the link to bind me to life- to make me hope and strive and wait, and now I feel sometimes as if the reward were coming, as if this long penance were at an end. My love! my husband! come to me! oh, come!" She uttered these last words with so wild and hysterical a cry that Julia was alarmed. But he might have written, dear." How do we know that, Julia?" said Mrs. Hallam, with a shade of sternness in her voice. "I have studied the matter deeply from the reports and despatches, and often the poor prisoners are sent far up the country as servants - almost "No, no, my child; it is only some. times that I feel so deeply stirred. Your words about his being changed seemed to move me to the quick. He will not be changed; his hair will be gray, his face lined with the furrows of increasing age and care; but he himself - my dear hus-slaves-to the settlers; in places someband, your loving father—will be at heart times where there are no fellow-creatures the same, and we shall welcome him back save the blacks for miles upon miles. No to a life of rest and peace." roads, Julie; no post, no means of communication." 'Yes, yes!" cried Julia, catching the infection of her mother's enthusiasm; "and it will be soon, will it not, mother it will be soon?" "Let us pray that it may, my child." But, mother, why do we not go to him?" Mrs. Hallam shivered slightly. "We should have been near him all these years, and we might have seen him. Oh, mother! if it had been only once! Why did you not go?" She rose from her knees, as if moved by her excitement. "Why, I would have gone a hundred times as far!" she said excitedly. "No distance should have kept me from the busband that I loved." "Julie! Julie! are you reproaching me?" "Mother!" cried the girl, flinging her self upon her neck, "as if I could reproach you!" My poor father!" sighed Julia, sink. ing upon the carpet, half sitting, half kneeling, with her hands clasped upon her knees, and her gaze directed up at the dimly seen picture on the wall. Is it "Yes, my child, I know all," said Mrs. Hallam. "I know him and his pride. Think of a man like him, innocent, and yet condemned; dragged from his home like a common felon, and forced to herd with criminals of the lowest class. not natural that his heart should rebel against society, and that he should proudly make his stand upon his innocency, and wait in silent suffering for the day when the law shall say, Innocent and injured man, come back from the desert. You have been deeply wronged'?" Yes, dear mother. Poor father! but not one letter in all these years!" "Julia, my child, you pain me," cried Mrs. Hallam excitedly. "When you speak like that, your words seem to imply that he has had the power to send letter or message. He is your father - my hus band. Child, you must learn to think of him with the same faith as I." "Indeed I will, dear," cried Julia passionately; and then she started to her feet, for there was a quick, decided knock at the front door. Mrs. Hallam hurriedly tried to compose her features; and as Thisbe's step was heard in the passage she drew in her breath, gazed wildly at the picture, just as Julia drew down the blind, and blotted it from her sight. Then the door was opened, and their visitor came in the centre of the glow shed by the passage light. "Aha! in the dark?" cried Bayle, in his cheery voice, as Thisbe opened the door. "How I wish I had been born a lady! I always envy you that pleasant hour you spend in the half-light gazing into the fire." "Ha! ha ha!" laughed Julia, in a pleasant, silvery trill, as she hastily lit the lamp, Bayle watching her as the argand wick gradually burned round, and she put on the glass chimney, the light throwing up her handsome young face against the gloom till she lifted the great dome shaped globe, which emitted a musical sound before being placed over the lamp, throwing Julia's countenance once more into the shade. "What are you laughing at?" said Bayle. "At the idea of our Mr. Bayle being idle for an hour sitting and thinking over the fire," said Julia playfully, to draw his attention from her mother's disturbed countenance. The attempt was a failure, for Bayle saw clearly that something was wrong; that pain and suffering had been there before him; and he sighed as he asked himself what he could do more, in his unselfish way, to chase earthly cares from that quiet home. From Macmillan's Magazine. GENERAL BARRIOS, LATE PRESIDENT OF GUATEMALA. A NOTABLE figure passed away last year from the field of American politics (using the word American in its largest sense) in the person of General Don Justo Rufino Barrios, for twelve years president of the small republic of Guatemala. Not that he was remarkable for the actual position he occupied in the political world at large; Guatemala is too unimportant a State for that; and as a mere president of a Spanish American republic he would have been a nobody, whose name was scarcely known outside his own country and the pages of Whitaker's Almanack." But he was remarkable as being in his own person the most complete embodiment of a form of government which many people who have studied the affairs of Spanish American States believe to be the only possible one under which they can advance and prosper. So inveterate is the political immorality of Spanish Americans in general, that unless they have a strong, determined ruler over them, who will allow no stealing and no corruption except such as he pleases to perpetrate on his own account, there can be little hope of the country getting a fair share of the revenues applied for its benefit, and therefore little hope of progress of any sort. The republic under Barrios existed in name only. He was for the whole period of his reign, as it may be called, absolute and all-powerful dictator, holding the power of life and death, of banishment and confiscation of property, of distribution of offices, of raising and spending money, of passing laws, and administering them if he saw fit; and, indeed, having the right of ultimate decision about every single act or matter to be done throughout his dominions. The government remained during his presidency, or rather series of presidencies, republican in form. There was the Congress; and the president was elected nominally for a limited term of years, and with limited powers, as the Constitution directs. But under Barrios this was merely a form. The Congress assembled at its stated times; and he liked it to assemble, for he relegated to it all unpleas ant business, the imposition of fresh taxes, and the passing of all measures, which he required to have passed, of a disagreeable or unpopular nature; and so shifted on to their shoulders the odium attaching to such things, reserving to himself the pleasure of issuing decrees on such subjects as he liked. And woe to any Congress, or member of Congress, refusing to pass the measures that Barrios dictated, unpopular as they might be; and woe also to any rash Guatemaltec who should at election time offer himself in opposition to Barrios. He was a Mestizo, or rather a Ladino, for that is the word used in Guatemala for a man of mixed Spanish and Indian blood; and the Indian rather predomi nated in the type of his countenance. He was short and thick-set, with legs too small for his body, a bullet-shaped head, dark complexion, high cheek-bones, his hair beginning far back on the forehead, and his face shaved clean, except for a short, thick goat's beard. Altogether, a strong, active, quick-eyed man, impressing every one with a sense of his individuality, | been invented about him; and in those and evidently a man by no means to be trifled with. He was originally educated for the law, but he soon found that his proper profession was that of politics and revolution. His home was in the Altos, the highlands of the country, near Quezaltenango, the district where all revolutions and disturb. ances invariably originate. When quite a young man he gathered together a band of mountaineers, hardy, restless, and ambitious like himself; and beginning in a small way, taking one town and another, defeated time after time, driven across the frontier into Mexico, or forced to hide in his native mountains, he always came back with redoubled energy; and so rising from small things to great, he finally found himself master of the city of Guate mala. With assumed modesty, he at first declined to accept the presidency, but took care that he should be very soon called to it by the acclamations of the populace; and once there, he was, as the Americans say, "there to stay." His excuse for revolution was the tyranny of the Church, and the chief item in his programme was liberty of thought and enfranchisement from the power of Rome. cases where cruelty can be clearly proved, it can generally be traced rather to his lieutenants than directly to himself. Still, he probably did not care to examine too closely into the manner in which his orders were carried out by his subordinates, so long as his end was gained. It is difficult to judge fairly of such things without knowing the sort of people he had to deal with, and the circumstances of each case. But his most zealous apologists could hardly deny that many acts of cruelty were committed at least with his sanction, For instance, during one of the very few revolutions that have occurred in his time, that of Retalhuleu in (I think) 1876, he ordered all the alcaldes and ayudantes (mayors and corporations are perhaps the nearest equivalent terms) in the disturbed district to be brought up and whipped. Most of them were Indians, and by far the majority innocent of all offence in the matter; but whipped they all were, nevertheless, and some of them died under the operation. There can be no defence for a high-handed act of injustice such as this; still it put an end to the disturbance. Acts like this, cruel as they are, were the only means of inspiring such terror of the consequences of revolt against his authority as would prevent any such at tempt in the future. And the success of the method, though it cannot be admitted as a defence, should be allowed as a palliation of guilt. From the moment of Barrios's accession to power Guatemala passed into a new phase of existence. In a land where periods of peace and of revolution had bitherto followed each other with the regularity, and almost with the frequency His mode of procuring a wife also was of summer and winter in less favored cli- hardly defensible. He saw her as a young mates, he established an almost perpetual girl of fifteen or sixteen, when he was season of peace. He put down all at distributing the prizes at a school; and tempts at revolution by such prompt and recognizing that she was the prettiest and summary action, that after a very short most refined girl in the country, deterexperience of his methods, no one was mined at once to marry her, and did so in found in the country brave enough to at- spite of the strenuous objection both of tempt any opposition to him. His own herself and her parents. Her father was experience as a revolutionist was invalu- a Spaniard, having large interests in the able to him in this matter, on the principle country, and saw that the question lay beof setting a thief to catch a thief. By thus tween his daughter and his ducats. How nipping every disturbance in the bud, and ever, some time afterwards Barrios found by taking precautionary measures, con- occasion to banish him, and he had to go sisting in the prompt removal, by banish-off to the States with scanty notice, and ment or otherwise, of any and every body is living with his family in San Francisco. who had the will and the means to foment a rebellion against him, he succeeded in preserving a peace, which, whatever his enemies may say to the contrary, was by no means altogether a solitude. No doubt his measures were harsh, and at times even very cruel, but they attained their end, as no other measures could. His cruelties have been enormous ly exaggerated, and the wildest tales have The marriage so brought about, turned out, perhaps unfortunately, quite successful; enough so at least to invite imitation by other potentates with sufficient power to use Barrios's methods. His despotism was essentially military. He was before anything a soldier himself, and took the keenest interest in all that concerned his army; and his troops were better dressed, better equipped, and bet The ter disciplined than is usually the case in | done by forced labor, and on no other Spanish American States. There were terms could the Indians, the only availa (I believe I am not exaggerating) eleven ble laborers, be made to work at all. barracks in the capital, most of them in owner of a coffee plantation sends word the immediate neighborhood of his pal to the alcalde of the nearest Indian village ace, and there were usually from three to that he requires so many men to work for four thousand troops in the city. He or- him the following week, and sends the ganized a system of militia throughout money fixed by law or custom for their the country, so that every man was drilled, payment, and the alcalde hunts up the Inexcept the pure Indians rather a large dians and sends them off without fail. exception, by the way. These local militia They have to go; no excuse whatever is were called out once or twice a month for valid except actual illness; and the penexercise and drill on Sunday mornings.alty for not obeying is imprisonment and By this means he had a force of between twenty and thirty thousand men ready as readiness is counted in those countries for war at any moment. How far all this elaborate care bestowed on the organization of the army was of any use, apart from his own personal influence, we shall see if we follow his career to the end. The great question to be answered before forming a judgment of Barrios and his career is, What were his objects? The first was to gratify his ambition, no doubt; and then to enrich himself. But these things done, I believe he had a veritable love for his country, and was anxious to do his best in its service. Personally he was a man of simple tastes and habits, rising early, dining simply, and living in most respects like a soldier. His extravagances were in horses and estates. He had a large stud of foreign and native horses, some of great value; and he had an idea of improving the breed in the country, and to that end established races in Guatemala, and made a tolerable racecourse just outside the city. But as no one dared to allow their horses to beat his in any race, from the fear (whether unfounded or not, it would be hard to say) of giving him offence, very little good was done in that way. He owned estates all over the country, cattle haciendas, coffee plantations, houses, and every sort of property worth having; and he was particular about and proud of their condition, trying to set an example of proper cultivation and management to other people. One of his cattle estates, half a day's journey south-west of Coban, certainly comprised the richest pasture lands in the district; and his large coffee estate on the coast near Champerico was one of the most productive in the country. But he had this advantage over the surrounding owners in that part, that, when labor was scarce, his estates were always fully supplied with laborers, whilst the others had to go short. All field work in Gautemala is whipping. The system differs from slav- In some districts plenty of Indians can always be obtained, but in others there is great scarcity; and at the time of the coffee-picking more labor is wanted than can be got the men for picking, and the women, and even the children, for sorting the berries. In many large estates, espe- | many men in his position, he fully appre cially on the Pacific coast, a great pro- ciated the value of various sorts of knowlportion of the crop is wasted for want of edge in others, and for others, which he means to gather it in, and the quality suf- did not possess himself. He took great fers from the haste and want of care with interest in the colleges and schools, and which it is prepared for shipping, due to did a great deal for the spread of educa the lack of hands. This is the time when tion all over the country. One of his Barrios had the advantage over other latest decrees was to the effect that no people. They might go short, but it was one should be admitted to practice as a certain that Indians enough would be lawyer or a doctor who had not passed a found for his estates. Probably he did sufficient examination in English and not himself interfere in the matter, and French. possibly, if applied to, he would have admitted the injustice, and remedied it; but it seemed so thoroughly in the natural order of things that he should be considered first in everything, that no one ever dreamed of making a complaint. They grumbled about it as an English farmer might grumble at an untimely shower of rain, but recognized it as one of the natural incidents of the country they lived in, admitting of no imaginable remedy. He dispensed prompt and generally fair justice in any case brought before him. Law proceedings, tedious in all countries, are tenfold more so in Spanish America than elsewhere, and justice is seldom done in the ordinary course. Barrios formed in his own person, actually though not constitutionally, a sort of supreme court of appeal, and even a court of first instance in many cases. Any one in a difficulty preferred, if they had the right on their side, or if there were complications which it was to the advantage of both Besides his estates in various parts of the country, Barrios had an interest, more or less large, in every profitable under-sides to get rid of, to appeal to Barrios taking in Gautemala; in the pier company, and the dock company at the port of San José, in the railway from Champerico inland, and so on; and it was well that he should, as his interest in them was the best guarantee that they should go on without interference or disturbance. direct, rather than suffer the delays and vexations of a regular lawsuit. The fol. lowing is a good instance of his method of dispensing justice. Some Germans, whom I knew well, owned a coffee estate in the north of the country, and wished to plant some new ground. Immediately beyond However, having got together as much their estate was a large tract of unoccupied money and as many possessions of various land which they supposed to be waste and sorts as he thought necessary, he un- unowned; and they occupied and planted doubtedly did his best for the advance- it, after the usual formalities required for ment of the country. He made the city taking up waste lands in the country. of Gautemala one of the cleanest, pleas- The tract they had taken, however, had antest, and most habitable cities in Span- been part of the property of the Church, ish America; and furnished it with a good and on the sequestration of Church lands and efficient police, bringing an inspector had been granted to a man who had no from New York to organize it. He sent especial use for it, and had left it idle for men to the United States to study post- many years. He had the right then of office and telegraph management, and re-giving notice of his ownership and of organized those services thoroughly with the experience thus gained. He built the railway from San José, the chief port of the country, to the capital, thus reducing the journey from two or three days to six hours; he built safe bridges, made and improved many of the chief roads, and did innumerable things of the kind necessary for the progress of the country, which could never have been done if a congress had had the management of affairs. Though not a highly cultured man, he was by no means ignorant. He spoke no language but Spanish, but he spoke that in a way to make himself very thoroughly understood when he so desired; and that was the main point for him. And, unlike claiming the land, within a certain time from the moment of their occupation. In this case the owner let the required time slip, and gave notice a month or two too late, so that by strict law my German friends had the right to retain the land. However, as it had been clearly his, they did not like to take what they considered to be unfair advantage of a technical point of law, so as usual they went to Barrios and laid the case before him. asked a few pertinent questions, so as thoroughly to master the details of the case, and gave his decision at once. He "You have planted the land in ques tion with coffee trees which are now old enough to be of great value?" |