Slowly the establishment of small factories has proceeded, for the partial provision of local needs. The principal cities have ice plants, of which some are subject to annoying interruptions. In the Cibao there are several sawmills. Further there are, in the larger cities, small establishments for the manufacture of cigars, cigarettes, matches, rum, straw hats, shoes, chocolate, soap and a few other articles. These are financed by Dominican capital and are not able to supply the local demand. In Santo Domingo City are the remains of a costly brewery erected by Americans with a view to supplying the West Indies; it was ruined, so local reports say, by bad management and has been idle for fifteen years. If the amount of soap used by a people is really an index of its degree of civilization, then the Dominicans can claim to be far advanced, for the consumption of soap manufactured in the country and imported, is very considerable. The government has encouraged manufacturing enterprises and repeatedly granted concessions exempting their machinery and raw material from import duties for specified periods. The number of manufacturing plants will doubtless increase, but agriculture is bound to remain the mainstay of the country. CHAPTER XVI CITIES AND TOWNS General condition of municipalities.--Santo Domingo City; ruins, churches, streets, popular legends.--Other towns of Santo Domingo Province.--San Pedro de Macoris.--Seibo.--Samana and Sanchez. --Pacificador Province.--Concepcion de La Vega.--Moca.--Santiago de los Caballeros.--Puerto Plata.--Monte Cristi.--Azua.--Barahona. Compared with cities in the United States a majority of Dominican towns are hoary with age. The capital city and a number of others were founded more than a century before Virginia was settled, and had begun to decline almost a hundred years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. Yet such have been the vicissitudes of the country that only one city, the capital, shows signs of its antiquity; the others from their appearance might be taken to be but a few decades old, and with the exception of two or three ancient churches in the interior none of the older buildings of these towns have survived the ravages of time, wars and earthquakes. The modern appearance of most cities is heightened by the fact that frame structures predominate, and outside of Santo Domingo, Santiago, La Vega and Puerto Plata stone houses are infrequent.