With  the  present  change,  however,  the
Cuban  peasant  feels  his  independence  to
a  greater  degree  than  may  at  first  be  im-
agined. Like  the  boy  who  has  grown  up
under  a  cruel  and  hard-hearted  master,
and  faces  the  world  with  a  feeling  of
self-reliance  and  freedom  from  restraint,
the  peasant  has  grasped  the  opportunity
offered  him  by  the  insurrectionary  gov-
ernment of  kicking  over  the  traces  and
becoming  an  independent  citizen.  He  is
made  to  feel  his  own  importance,  even  by
the  forfeiture  of  his  property  under  the
new  order  of  things,  and  realizes  that  he
has  thus  become  a  shareholder  in  the  re-
public, with  certain  official  positions  to
hold  and  work  to  do,  with  that  sword  of
Damocles,  represented  by  the  Spanish
Guardia  Civil,  no  longer  hanging  overhim.
It  has  long  been  the  dream  of  idealists
to  form  such  a  government  where  laws
can  be  made  and  obeyed  without  the
necessity  of  other  police  than  the  citizens
themselves.  This  is  what  has  taken
place  in  Free  Cuba,  where  I  have  known
an  erring  citizen  to  be  detained,  in  other
words  arrested  and  sent  a  prisoner  to
headquarters,  with  no  other  force  than
the  simple  order  of  a  prefecto.  But
human  nature  is  such  that  experience
proves  this  state  of  affairs  to  continue
only  just  so  long  as  the  enthusiasm
attending  the  change  is  kept  up,  and  as
soon  as  a  man's  ambition  is  taken  from
him  by  lowering  him  from  the  social
level  of  his  neighbor,  he  either  becomes
a  malcontent,  or  lapses  into  the  stage
of  civil  degeneracy.
