Page:Traveler from Altruria, Howells, 1894.djvu/104

98 "Then the young ladies prefer to dance with one another and with little boys"—

"No, they prefer to dance with young men of their own station; they would rather not dance at all than dance with people beneath them. I don't say anything against these natives here; they are very civil and decent. But they have not the same social traditions as the young ladies; they would be out of place with them, and they would feel it."

"Yes, I can see that they are not fit to associate with them," said the Altrurian, with a gleam of common sense that surprised me, "and that as long as your present conditions endure, they never can be. You must excuse the confusion which the difference between your political ideals and your economic ideals constantly creates in me. I always think of you politically first, and realize you as a perfect democracy; then come these other facts, in which I cannot perceive that you differ from the aristocratic countries of Europe in theory or practice. It is very puzzling. Am I right in supposing that the effect of your economy is to establish insuperable inequalities among you, and to forbid the hope of the brotherhood which your polity proclaims?"