The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-09-09
THE LOT OF
THE BOARDER.
How 1t Has Been Made Happy
In New York.
The Customary One I1lbred
BOarder at the Table
is NOW ELIMINATED
BY Series of Tables By Which
Guests
Can Secure Their Own Company
and Associates.
s NOW ELIMINATED
rFrom the New york Posi-. I

DoafQlng houses, an eVOIVement that mas
kept pace with the piling up of the tall
buildings, the multiplication of telephone
wires and the augmenting of the many
neutrality-suspicious. conveniences supplied
to an INDUCED and exacting genera ton.
And the boarding house is factor in
the citys life worth considering, since
more people board in New York, and
board longer. than in any other city of
the Union; more people, hailing from
more places and bent more and various
missions and businesses, than fall to the
lot of any other American city. For rea-
sons diverse, but not beyond the guess ing,
escape from the hotels after mere pre-
Hmlnary stay and become Idenuned with
the life at some particular number of
some particular block, up town or down
town, where their domestic needs ind as
suagement or actiOn-the distinction
is OBVIOUS. It is this type of cOlOnist and
the army of townspeopIe out and out
New Workers, uprooted from their homes
to board because it is less trouble than TO
keep house, or because they have nobody
to keep house for, who have discovered
the New York boarding house, typically
considered, is today far more habItable.
ever dreamed possible that it would be
than it was, decade ago, or even tour
or five years ago.
Yes" said a veteran boarder, who en-
barked in the calling early and has kept
at II all his ME learning all ITS ms ana
outs and multitudlnous phases let jus
tlee be done even th3ugh tradItlon per per,
the New York boarding house proper,
that as conducted today it is a place where
gently bred people of whatever adherence
reason and propriety, without stepping on
each others toes or otherwise having their
pet instincts affrOnted or rubbed contrari-
wise. And the reason for the transmit
tation? The adjustment of the long, all
cret. The Introduction of small tables
has obVlated certain PugDears ana ser up
ing house life the lack of which set peO-
pies teeth most on edge, but, under the
regime. a impossible
born realist or the habituai grubworm.
The old boarding house Git seems old time
now, although in reality only few year
removed) was place where the inmates
sold their privacy dearly or cheaply, ac-
cOrding to circumstances, and where en-
an indispensable- element even in the best
houses; but look around at the people
the New York boarding house today and
It IS stamped on their races i ahq Ie eth IA
their manners that they WouIu pc ln{ol-
Grant of such conditions, and the fact that
they are there, firm rooted and establish
ed in contentment season aLier season
is signal proof of the temper OF the place.
of its guests living under the same roof
for years together, and never even know
Guitar family relations of the various
groups and Subdivisions of guests. The
by-jowl sandwiching and sharing in com
mon, was simply barbarous. It's abolish
house life that was fast being discarded
and avoided by the refined and fastid3ious,
the landlady's policy.
sOld adherents like ne-those who have
tried or been subjected to long SUGGESTIONS
ers season after season-hailed the de-
throning Of the long table with joy, and
in some quiet corner, out of the main
With i f66 table comforts ana fndi-
vidual company for only the atoms most
congenial are seated together in the new
order of things), we note the gentility and
tranquility engendered BY the change. by
the way did you ever notlc now synonym I n
Gus in sound those words are? We nightly
pledge the health of the woman
keeper of boarders who first had courage
to incur the expense of the 1nnOVa ton,
Danish the time-hOnOred, maybe inherited,
mahogany to lgnornlny. ana substitute me
six, eight or ten round and square pro-
tail additional trouble and additional COM
plement of outfit at her end OF the line
as with hooks of steel, and make them
think life worth the living, even if you
This veteran boarder's enthusiasm in the
first flush of his emancipation may be par
and plethora of knowledge, but there is
ample testimony from all quarters that
the modern type of that hosiery in the
of the thing as the thing is commonly in
terpreted or hooted at, but household I
Character Rather than one company COM
pose dof many, it is now little detached /
entities, each free to revolve in its own /
orbits, yet forming whole; this too, in !
The New York landlady-and her name !
is legiOn-lOng since stopped trying to en- !
terrain her guests but not until lately did /
she think to put check on her guests (
trying to entertain each other. Paradox |
ical as it may seem, as soon as the board /
ing house stopped trying to be a home, !
trying to amalgamate odd and opposite /
and irrelated elements into one big fam /
lily, it became habitable, and the more I
widely Independent and free Taxed its rein, /
the more of the hearthstone, snuggery at /
mosphere it conferred Even fussy peo- |
pie, people with hobbies to ride and /
mind to ride them, and with eorns (meta- /
phorically speaking) that they wish to |
keep from being trOd on, can and do board |
in the new order of New York boarding /
house, living therein and therehOW, for !
and contentment, and (alI the world will /
agree) that is saying good deal. Aus-
keeping, f1at-keeping and housekeeping, of /
both the light and heavy descript ton, bach
elors and bachelor wives, maids and |
widows, oddities of being of all sorts and
sects, people with real, rafting family |
skeletons to guard, can board nowadays
and be safe-harbored alike from the Curl
vacy. The purposefuI person can now
have that oneness and apartnesS of exist
ence essential to the fulhllment of ends
as he would obtain ito quote Bridget's
pet phrase-he lives private" and this,
TOO. IS saying good deal.
Whether the abolition of the long table
terminated in the thought of some in
genious and tactful landlady, or grew out
of the oft-reiterated request for private
clear The innovation probably cropped
out of the obvious need for a wedding out
and parting Of the guests, as the city |
grew in size and diversity, and IT became
more and more difficult to reconcile the
various grades and needs and tempers of |
the house inmates Whatever Its origin,
ions of tWOs and threeS, either of con- |
genial or associated relationship although |