The more serious offenders were kept in irons. The Dominican authorities, realizing that they had no reason to be proud of their prisons, were loath to permit foreigners to visit the jails. When I called at the government building at Sanchez on one occasion, however, the commandant was absent and an indiscreet sergeant offered to show me the two rooms used for prison purposes. The building was a wooden one and one of the rooms, though heavily barred, did not seem unfitted except in case of overcrowding, which I was told sometimes occurred. The other room was extremely repulsive. It was dark and a foul odor rising from a hole in the wooden floor demonstrated the truth of the guide's remark that there was no outhouse for the use of the prisoners. Along one side of this room lay two long square-cut beams, one on the other, scalloped out so as to form a number of round holes along their juncture. It was evident they were used as stocks and my guide stated that he had seen a whole row of men sitting along the log with their feet thus confined. One or two of the holes were a little larger and it was explained that they were for the purpose of confining not the feet but the neck of the delinquent, and that this punishment was much worse, producing especial pain in the case of short-necked persons. The severest pain was produced, so the guide stated, when the delinquent was seated on the beam and his feet placed crosswise through the holes: he could bear the agony of this position for only a short time. The American authorities have made great improvements in the prisons and prison discipline. The jails are now so clean that they are almost show places. The revolutionary disturbances have seriously interfered with the proper execution of the sentences of the courts. It was a usual procedure for revolutionary forces, upon entering a town, to free the prisoners--either as a slap at the government or in order thereby to augment their own strength. In Puerto Plata, a few years ago, a merchant was convicted of fraudulent bankruptcy and sentenced to three years in jail; soon afterwards a revolutionary force took possession of the town and freed the prisoners; and a few hours later the townspeople were amused to see the lawyer who had been instrumental in securing the conviction himself led to prison at the instigation of the culprit. In March, 1903, when the political prisoners in the Santo Domingo prison broke out, they released the convicts, some of whom retained their gyves during the fighting which followed, until the revolution was successful several days later.