People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-12-29

1lMl staircase Will be !
,;iINMGNg seenupon the right,
LNiNNYlglllSlA\\ handsome to pre-
"NM vi tentiousness, and
q y taking up deal of
space. Behind it is an open court,
gloomy but clean, whose only pur-
pose is to give light. Upon the
left you have the cOncierge's lodge
When the concierge is not eat
ing or sleeping, he is walking about
with broom IN his hand. His wife
appears only to eat and sleep and an
swer questions. The two live in this
one small room. directly beside the
great door. Their bed is visible through
out the day, covered with decent blue
silk edredon and canOpied in some red
stuff, like the bedstead of some ancient
king Beside the bed, on a little shelf,
hangs a pneumatic tube connected
with the catch of the big door Of the
street. When you come in at night
you invariably stand outside and ring
at first. He reaches sleepily over to the
shelf, pushes the button and the COM
pressed air does the rest. The big door
swings open, you shut it behind you
and then, walking past the concierges
door, you call out loudly your name,
Jackson "Smithers..'' "Vasseur!" or
whatever it may be.
1t is the concierge's business to know
the voices and names of all the peo-
pie h the house. The name, age, ma
tionality, and previous last residence
of each newcomer is reported to the
concierge by the locataires of the diff
ferent apartments, who transmits them
on regulation printed forms to the po-
lice. Apart from these duties the con-
cierge must receive all letters and
packages and mount them to their
destination three times each day; must
answer the questions of callers, rs
Nine y. chez elle?" and keep the
stairway and the big hall clean.
Because the house is comparatively
new it has an elevator There is no
elevator boy; you work the thing your
self 1t can only take two people go
ing up, and you are forbidden to use
it at all going down-it wastes the
power. An immense iron rod, as thick
around as a girls waist and as long as
liberty pole, supports the car for
safety, and dts ponderous weight
dragged up and down, after fashion
that seems to us Americans so useless,
forbids anything like speed. The eleva-
tor crawls.
The elevator is only for the use OF
masters" all servants, laundresses,
shop runners, and the like must take
stairs. These come to our pension in
inconceivable numbers, with boxes
bundles, bags and packages From the
Louvre, the Bon Marche, the Prin,
temps and the choicer. smaller shops
especially of the Rue de la PAX and
Rue de RivOli, the uniformed delivery
men come daily to this tourist camping
ground; and this in spite of the asser
ton you hear each evening in the
salon, that nothing is cheap in Paris
except gloves.
The pension has four floors of the
apartment house. The bel elage (th'
premier above the entresoD is giveI
over to the public life. There is wild,
hallway where gentlemen may smok,
after lunch and dinner for half hOu
or so, but at no other time; two dining
rooms, not too handsome, and Otter
crowded, and one large parlor. Tn
floor is in hard wood, polished and laiC
out in patterns Its furniture is hand
some, if formal, in rocco style, wit
lavish gliding and pale silk.
1t must be confessed that the CONVEX
sation of this salon is not always of tn
arts and sciences. An American COZ
poration has recently established itsel
in France. The wife of one official
living in this pension, was wont t
count the weeks until the wife of an
other official should arrive to bear he
company. They had never met before
but on the second day they were a
thick as capitalists, until a differenc
arose.
MY dear. l would buy that hat"
81 can't afford it."
''Why, your husband has good sal
airy. He is cashier.
HE is treasurer" replied the first.
Cashier
Treasurer
"He is cashier! And my husband
vice-president! And my husband ca
send your husband back to America
he pleases, madame"
Now they do not speak, but thei
husbands grin mutually as they pas
each other in the corridor; and neithe
in their official intercourse nor in thei
little jaun6 about the town, picl1in
up conversational French, has any lac
of harmony been brought about.
The wife of the proprietor of til
pension is such charming lady, wit
. a mouth so full of those platitudes i
which the French delight, so goo
natured and so sympathetic, that
lonely American widow with dispC
sition to chronic sadness and theolog
cal ouestioninps became captivate