It constitutes a source of
municipal income, the right to open cockpits being annually conceded
to the highest bidder by the various municipalities. Raffles and
lotteries are also permitted by law, being subject to taxation by the
municipalities, and in one or two cities there are municipal
lotteries.
With respect to morality the same conditions may be said to prevail in
Santo Domingo as in other southern countries, the women being in
general virtuous and pure and the men inclined to amorous intrigues.
The official statistics relating to marriages and births show that of
the children born in the Republic almost sixty per cent are
illegitimate. These figures, while serious, are rendered less alarming
than would appear at first sight by the large number of what the
census-takers term "consensual unions" among the humbler classes, or
cases where a man and woman, though not united by marriage ceremony,
live together publicly as man and wife, rear a family and are as
faithful to each other as if they were legitimately married. "Married
but not parsoned" is the way in which such unions are referred to in
some of the British West Indies.
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