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They can, according to the voice of the city, do what they please, and the voice of the city—not in the main roads but in the little side-alleys where the stall-less bull blocks the path—attests how well their pleasure has suited the pleasure of the people. In truth, to men of action few things could be more delightful than having a State of fifteen thousand square miles placed at their disposal, as it were, to leave their mark on. Unfortunately for the vagrant traveller, those who work hard for practical ends prefer not to talk about their doings, and he must, therefore, pick up what information he can at second-hand or in the city. The men at the stand-pipes explain that the Maharaja Sahib’s father gave the order for the Water-works and that Yakub Sahib made them—not only in the city but out away in the district. “Did people grow more crops thereby?” “Of course they did: were canals made to wash in only?” “How much more crops?” “Who knows. The Sahib had better go and ask some official.” Increased irrigation means increase of revenue for the State somewhere, but the man who brought about the increase does not say so.

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