As we moved along in a little procession, I was delighted with the illumination of the streets. So many lamps, and they burned until morning, my father said, and so people did not need to carry lanterns.

The speaker’s wonder at streetlights that “burned until morning” captures the shock of modern urban infrastructure as experienced by a newcomer. The detail that people “did not need to carry lanterns” contrasts an older, more precarious mode of moving through darkness with a city that seems safer, more public, and more technologically advanced. The “little procession” suggests a family’s first exploratory walk—half ceremonial, half tentative—through an unfamiliar environment. Beyond literal illumination, the passage implies a symbolic entry into a new world: a society organized around shared public amenities, where everyday life is extended into the night and where progress is visible in ordinary streets.