News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1894-03-01
The Partisan Pension.

In the life of cosmopolitan Paris the pen
sion plays a role Of prominence. 1t is
marked and characteristic feature OF the
city, as local to it as the lodging house of
London is TO English life, or the boarding
house to the land Of free Americans, but
occupying totally different position in the
social scale from either of these institu-
tons.
The Paris pension is distinctly and I'M
deniably cosmopolitan; it is even more, il
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 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 Italiens, and you
will discover it's inhabitants to be as di-
verse in aspect and nationality as it's stu
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, a true Paris outcome of a
distinctively Partisan need.
In Paris there Is not the same social gulf
separating the dweller in hotel from the
resident of 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 ''in 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 it's accommodations will fuctuate
with the same actuating cause, also little
with the nationality of the proprietor. If,
as an Americana should say, as do the
ParisiaIs, a Estates American''-you select
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 combination of English and
French tastes as illustrated in household
life-a very risky thing to attempt, by the
way-and you find true son of Briton who
is condescending to exist on the hated
French soil, your condition will be nearly
as bad, but possibly not quite, if 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.
AS in any case, everything but the land
lord or lady is sure to lie French, it is fan
more satisfactory on The whole to dispose
of yourself at a purely French pension tc
begin with, where the prices are much less
and the comforts much greater than in the
hybrid establishments.-Bo Herald.