Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1875 — Parisian Boarding-Houses. [ARTICLE]

Parisian Boarding-Houses.

A writes in Lippineott’s ssys: “Tha Parisian boarding-houses are, as a rule, very bad. They are compounded of dirt and starvation. Usually they are (heap enough, from eight to ten francs being demanded for board, including service—everything, in fact, except fire and lights. The company is gcjiferally far from unexceptionable, and the unwary female who may chance, with true American sociability, to make acquaintances among the other lady will be apt to find herself burdened with an intimacy more scandalous than desirable. The supplies of food are carefully adjusted so as to keep the boarders just inside of starvation pitch, eveiytliing, even to the bread, being cut down to the smallest-possible allowance for each person. No butter is given at dinner at all. Breakfast is composed of a very small bit of meat, two eggs, a pat of bulter about the size and thickness of a silver dollar, and just a* little bread as the wfijter by cutting tliin sliced, and keeping the plate Out of she way'can persuade the hoarder to accept. At some of these houses (and well-fre-quented and fashionable ones at that) the worn-out sheets of the establishment are pressed into requisition for "breakfast" tablecloths. There is-a good deal of display at dinner in the way of plated epergnes and artificial flowers, but tlie fare is of the scantiest and the glass and china are of the coarsest and commonest quality. Some of the more’* expensive Parisian hoarding-houses are kept by decayed members of the aristocracy, and these are especially to Tie avoided'as the title of the host or hostess is supposed to cover up a multitude of sins in tlie way of rudeness, extortion and meanness of all kinds. But then it looks well to see it announced in the American papers that ‘ Mrs. and Miss Slarsanstripes have been staying in Paris, tlie guests of the Baroness Bouerseride,’ but tlie paragraphist is careful not to announce that lime, la Baronne keeps a boarding-house, and that Mrs. BtarsanstripeS pays 10() francs a week for tlie privilege of dwelling beneath her lios-' pitable roof. At some of these houses gambling on quite an extensive scale is carried on in the evenings. Generally tlie arrangement of the rooms is very bad, as Parisian houses are not adapted to the requirements of transient guests, and the heights to which tliewisitor is supposed to climb are incalculable, many of these buildings being from six to seven stories high, and with never an elevator to be seen.”