The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-01-11

pOSc ID W give llBhG' Poh CiiS
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 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 concierge's
door, you call out loudly your name,
jackson 'Smithers" "Vasseur!" or
whatever it may be.
1t is the concierges business to know
the voices and names of all the peo-
pie in the house. The name, age, ma
tionality, and previous last residence
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-
aierge must receive all letters and
packages and mount" them to their
destination three times each day; must
answer the questions of callers, SIS
Nine. X. 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
1t at all going down-it wastes the
power An immense iron rod, as thick
around as girls waist and as long as
" liberty pole, supports the car for
safety, and it's 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 Ron Marche, the Prin-
4emps and the choicer, smaller shops
especially of the Rue de la Paix 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 (the
premier above the entresoD is giver
over to the public life. There is wide
hallway where gentlemen may smoke
after lunch and dinner for half houl
or So but at no other time; two dining
rooms, not too handsome, and Otter
crowded, and one large parlor. The
floor is in hard wood, polished and lait
out in patterns Its furniture is hand
some, if formal, in rocco style, will
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 cor
poration has recently esta blished 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 al
thick as capitalists, until differenc,
| arose.
my dear, would buy that hat"
81 can't afford it,"
why, your husband has a good sal
airy. He is cashier"
HE is treasurer" replied the first.
"Cashierl'
"Treasurer!"
"He is cashier! And my husband i
vice-presidentl And my husband cal
send your husband back to America i
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 jaunts about the town, picking
up conversational French, has any lacl
| of bar,,,pnt- hao,, brpuob+ aho,,+
The wife of the proprietor of tn
pension is such charming lady, witt
a mouth so full of those platitudes il
which the French delight, SO goo,
natured and so sympathetic, that
lonely American widow with dispo
| sition to chronic sadness and theologi
cal questionings became captivate,
with her goodness in two short weeks
Contrary to European practice, sh
made friend of madame. 1t was sum
mer time, and the two small children
of the pension We're home on thei
school vacation. Like nearly al
French people who have any religion
at all, their mother is a Roman Catho
/ lie. The American widow, having BEEF
Methodist, Presbyterian and agnosti
in turn, with year OF theosophy ant
a shy at Swedenborgianism, found
peculiar restfulness in hearing the lit
tie ones say their prayers at night
The half-darkened bed chamber, tn
mother kneeling by the two, the dig
nifty and sobriety of the function, wit
the clear French words falling from
their infant lips in balanced sentences
gave her thrill she had not felt TO
years. The American widow bough
Il catechism; and the children
with the feryor of youth, began to hea
her lessons. In answer to the alalme,
questionings of ritualistic Anglican
pastor-they cell them all pastors" il
French, to their d.sgust-she said: "