The real campaigns and expressions of the people's will have therefore been the revolutions, and politics and revolutions have thus come to be regarded as going hand in hand. In a town of the Cibao an expression of the garrulous landlady of the inn attracted my attention. The old lady, after regaling me with the local gossip, started with her own troubles. "Two revolutions ago," she said--and her mode of measuring time struck me as peculiar--"my eldest son took a gun and went into politics." "Cojio un fusil y se metio en la politica"--"took a gun and went into politics," the phrase is sadly expressive. Such campaigns were only too easily begun. When a new president entered upon office on the crest of a successful revolution, apparently with the whole country behind him and his adversaries silenced or scattered, his popularity generally lasted until the spoils were distributed. ("To the victors belong the spoils" was the policy of the past; the American military authorities are making an important innovation by the introduction of civil service principles for selecting public employees.) The disappointed spirits immediately entered into the plots which the vanquished opponents were not slow in fomenting. The leader of the adverse party or one of his trusted lieutenants raised the standard of revolt and issued manifestoes which echoed with patriotic sentiments and decried the faults of the administration. He was joined by a number of disgruntled "generals" and their followers. The telegraph wires were cut and the revolution had begun. Before 1905 the seizure of a custom-house was invariably the next step, which would at the same time provide the insurgents with the sinews of war and make it impossible for the government to pay its employees in that province. The custom-houses were eliminated as pawns in the revolutionary game by the fiscal treaty with the United States, according to which the customs receipts were paid over to an American receiver-general. Revolutions for a short time became more difficult, but where there's a will there's a way, and under a new routine the necessary funds were derived from the government's internal revenues and from levies on private citizens.