Page:Diary of a Pilgrimage (1891).pdf/275

Rh up to, and to such calling they are thereupon apprenticed. At twenty they take their rank as citizens, and are entitled to a vote. No difference whatever is made between men and women. Both sexes enjoy equal privileges."

I said:

"What are the privileges?"

He said:

"Why, all that I’ve been telling you."

We wandered on for a few more miles, but passed nothing but street after street of these huge blocks. I said:

"Are there no shops nor stores in this town?"

"No," he replied. "What do we want with shops and stores? The State feeds us, clothes us, houses us, doctors us, washes and dresses us, cuts our corns, and buries us. What could we do with shops?"

I began to feel tired with our walk. I said:

"Can we go in anywhere and have a drink?"

He said:

"A 'drink!' What’s a 'drink'? We have half-a-pint of cocoa with our dinner. Do you mean that?"

I did not feel equal to explaining the matter to him, and he evidently would not have understood me if I had; so I said:

"Yes; I meant that."

We passed a very fine-looking man a little further on, and I noticed that he only had one arm. I had noticed two or three rather big-looking men with only one arm in 18 *