Milford chronicle., 1893-10-27
the pAslslAN PENSION.
wherein It DiRera From the Boarding
1fouse In America.


wherein It Differs From the Boarding
House In America
Tn the life Of cosmopolitan Paris the pen
sion plavs role OF prominence. It is a
marked and characteristic feature Of the
citv. as local to it as the lodging house Of
Iondpu is to English life, or the boarding
house to the land Of free Americans, but
occupving q totally different position in the
social scale from either Of these institu-
tions
The Paris pension is distinctly and un-
deniably cosmopolitan; it is even more, in
that it Is democratic, or, as the French
themselves would say, republican. It is no
respecter Of persons or localities, for it is
equally at home in a narrow street off from
the old Faubourg St. German, or when it
looks out on the beauty Of the Champs
Elysees. You will find it away out on the
road to Passey, or just around the corner
from the Boulevard des Itahens, and you
viii discover its inhabitants to be as di-
verse in aspect and nationality as its situ-
ations are various, but in spite Of all this
the pension will still maintain certain un-
alterable characteristics that pronounce 1t
to be, all IN all, true Paris outcome of a
distihctively Partisan need.
In Paris there is not the same social gulf
separating the dweller in a hotel from the
resident of a pension that is to be found be-
tween those who live in hotels and board
ing houses in the States, where the one may
be sin the swim" but the other never is,
being debarred by the very fact of his exist
ence within the tabooed walls. Here the
reverse of this is true, rather, for OF the two
the pension is the more highly estimated,
and the better and more refined social ele-
ment, whether Of resident foreigners, tour
lists or native Parisians, will always be
found located there in preference to the no
tells.
The pension differs in grade according to
the locality in which it is situated, and the
amount Of French gold you viii part with
in return for the shelter Of its walls and the
use Of its accommodations will fluctuate
with the same actuating cause, also little
with the nationality Of the proprietor. If,
as an American-I should say, as do the
Parisians, Estates American you select
a pension presided over by host of the
same nationality, you may reconcile your
self to paying for that privilege at rate
based upon Estates calculations. The
COOKING will be French, likewise the service
and the servants.
The principle Of the household system
will be entirely French in all probability,
and very likely not so well executed as it
would be under French management, but
that will have nothing to do with the price,
which will be truly American. If you de
sire to test a combination of English and
FRI tastes as illustrated in household
= IN a very risky thing to attempt by the
W. o.y-and you find u true son of BritOn who
tne eondescending to exist on the hated
French soil, your condition will be nearly
as bad, but possibly not quite, ii the house
is one much frequented by Englishmen, be-
cause the travelling Briton is deeply and in
curably averse to parting with his money,
and the English standard of prices is there
fore lower than the American.
Asin any case, everything but the land
lord or lady is sure to be French, it is far
more satisfactory on the whole to dispose
of yourself at a purely French pension to
begin with, where the prices are much less
and the comforts much greater than in the
hybrid establishments.-B0st Herald.