Franklin Evans Chapter IV Page 24 1st Paragraph
“When I arose the next morning, and thought over in my mind what it would be better for me to do first, I saw that it was necessary to provide myself with a boarding-house. After breakfast, I crossed the ferry, and purchasing a paper of one of the news-boys, for a penny, I looked over to the column containing advertisements of the places similar to what I wished. I was somewhat surprised to find that every one had the most “airy, delightful location,” the very “best accommodations,” with “pleasant rooms,” and “all the comforts of a home.”Some of them informed the reader that there were “no children in the house.” These I passed over, determining not to go there; for I loved the lively prattle of children, and was not annoyed as some people pretend to be, by their little frailties.”
In this paragraph, Whitman starts to introduce what boarding houses were. He writes about how many of the advertisements for these boarding houses speak highly of how nice they were. To get a sense of what boarding houses are, Wikipedia describes it as “a house (often a family home) in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide “bed and board”, that is, at least some meals as well as accommodation.” This paragraph is very clean, and Franklin Evans states that he loved the lively prattle of children, which gives me a positive view on him.