o five quarrelsome little
republics--the "Balkan States" of America. Among them Costa Rica had
suffered least from arbitrary management or internal commotion and
showed the greatest signs of advancement.

In Guatemala, however, there had arisen another Diaz, though a man quite
inferior in many respects to his northern counterpart. When Justo Rufino
Barrios became President of that republic in 1873 he was believed
to have conservative leanings. Ere long, however, he astounded his
compatriots by showing them that he was a thoroughgoing radical with
methods of action to correspond to his convictions. Not only did he
keep the Jesuits out of the country but he abolished monastic orders
altogether and converted their buildings to public use. He made marriage
a civil contract and he secularized the burying grounds. Education
he encouraged by engaging the services of foreign instructors, and he
brought about a better observance of the law by the promulgation of
new codes. He also introduced railways and telegraph lines. Since
the manufacture of aniline dyes abroad had diminished the demand for
cochineal, Barrios decided to replace this export by cultivating coffee.
To this end, he distributed seeds among the planters and furnished
financial aid besides, with a promise to inspect the fields in due
season and see what had been accomplished. Finding that in many cases
the seeds had been thrown away and the money wasted in drink and
gambling, he ordered the guilty planters to be given fifty lashes, with
the assurance that on a second offense he would shoot them on sight.
Coffee planting in Guatemala was pursued thereafter with much alacrity!

Posts in the government service Barrios distributed quite impartially
among Conservatives and Democrats, deserving or otherwise, for he had
them both well under control. At his behest a permanent constitution was
promulgated in 1880. While he affected to dislike continual reelection,
he saw to it nevertheless that he himself should be the sole candidate
who was likely to win.

Barrios doubtless could have remained President of Guatemala for
the term of his natural life if he had not raised up the ghost of
federation. All the republics of Central America accepted his invitation
in 1876 to send delegates to his capital to discuss the project. But
nothing was accomplished because Barrios and the President of Salvador
were soon at loggerheads. Nine years later, feeling himself stronger,
Barrios