t you want reformed is at present a necessary
evil."

"You also, senor, believe in necessary evil?" said Elias with a tremor
in his voice. "You think one must go through evil to arrive at good?"

"No; but I look at evil as a violent remedy we sometimes use to cure
ourselves of illness."

"It is a bad medicine, senor, that does away with the symptoms without
searching out the cause of the disease. The Municipal Guard exists
only to suppress crime by force and terrorizing."

"The institution may be imperfect, but the terror it inspires keeps
down the number of criminals."

"Rather say that this terror creates new criminals every day,"
said Elias. "There are those who have become tulisanes for life. A
first offence punished inhumanly, and the fear of further torture
separates them forever from society and condemns them to kill or to
be killed. The terrorism of the Municipal Guard shuts the doors of
repentance, and as a tulisan, defending himself in the mountains,
fights to much better advantage than the soldier he mocks, we cannot
remedy the evil we have made. Terrorism may serve when a people is
enslaved, and the mountains have no caverns; but when a desperate
man feels the strength of his arm, and anger possesses him, terrorism
cannot put out the fire for which it has itself heaped the fuel."

"You would seem to speak reasonably, Elias, if one had not already his
own convictions. But let me ask you, Who demand these reforms? You
know I except you, whom I cannot class with these others; but are
they not all criminals, or men ready to become so?"

"Go from pueblo to pueblo, senor, from house to house, and listen
to the stifled groanings, and you will find that if you think that,
you are mistaken."

"But the Government must have a body of unlimited power, to make
itself respected and its authority felt."

"It is true, senor, when the Government is at war with the country;
but is it not unfortunate that in times of peace the people should
be made to feel they are at strife with their rulers? If, however,
we prefer force to authority, we should at least be careful to whom
we give unlimited power. Such a force in the hands of men ignorant,
passionate, without moral training or tried honor, is a weapon
thrown to a madman in the middle of an unarmed crowd. I grant the
Government must have an arm, but let it choose this arm well; and
since it prefers the power it assumes to that the people might give
it, let it at lea