1104





The Record and Guide.





Novetnber 1, 18£





exoeu of the amount necessary they will he returned pro rata to the
subscriber a.

With the budding of theae elevators the One Hundred and Sixteenth
■treet station will become, from being the most inaccessible, the most con¬
venient of access of all the stations along the line of the road, Tbia
improvement will certainly not be undertaken unless the property owners
will subscribe. In otber words, it will be impossible for any property
owner to avail himaelf of the desire on the part of certain of the property
owners to improve their property without themselves contributing towards
the accomplishment of tnat end.

If the property owners generally subscribe, it is proposed to make the
elevators open to the public without fee. If the property holdera fail,
however, ao to subscribe, and the burden of building theae elevators falls
upon a few of the ownera of property in tha district they will naturally
regard the elevatora as their private property and allow the use thereof by
card only to the occupants of such iota as have contributed towards the
building, Tbis will make a perpetual discrimination against the lota
wbich have failed to contribute, outweighing a score of timea in value the
■aving of the |50 a lot,                            Respectfully,

John H, ShkjiwooDj
President of the Horth Central Park Improvement Company.

The following statement ia aubinitted to the subscribera to the fund for
building elevators and a seven-story structure (flre-proof), at One Hundred
and Sixteenth street and Eighth avenue:

Eatimated cost of corner lot, 26x103.......................................    $18,000

"          ■'      3,U<jO square Feet of vault apace.........................       2,:^t

"           •'     aeven-story flre-proof building, 26x100..................     60,000

"           "    two vaults under si;reet, 20xlUU and 50x30...............       8,000

"           "     three large powerful elevators___.....................      16,000

"           "     boilers, sieam flUing, engine, pumps, &c..............     12,000

"           "    piumttiiig, painting, maniles, grates, Sco................       6,750

$106,000
The trustees believe an annual income may be reasonably expected from
the property, after the first year, aa follows :

Bent of store and baaement, 2Ci7B.....................................     $1,500

"    sii apartments, 26x?5, $flO0 each...................................       4,800

$6,300
Lesa taxes. Insurance, Scc..................................................       1.30J

$6,000
Thia sum will pay a dividend of 4 per cent, at least, independent of the
benefit to your lots,                                  John H, Shsbwood,

President ot Horth Central Park Improvement Company.

The special committee of tha Sona of the Kevolution have requested us
to make an appeal on behalf of the pedestal fund of the Statue of Lib¬
erty. They have inaugurated a $1 subscription list, headed by President
Artbur, and are making great efforts to raise the balance required to com¬
plete the pedestal—$1S5,000. It would hardly seem necessary to put forth
special eSort to raise so comparatively small a sum in this wealthy
country of ours; New York city alone could, without any difflculty, con¬
tribute the sum. The Statue of Liberty appeals essentially to the
patriotic instincts of citizena of the United States. Germany, France and'
England have their national monumenta which commemorate triumphs
by land and sea, but America will have a statue which "will be the
emblem of freedom to all men. Every citizen should contribute hia quota
to such a noble monument. The offlce of tbe committee is at Ho. 55 Lib¬
erty atreet,                              ________^

An owner of premises in the city of New Tork is not liable to any
penalty for failing to put up a fire-escape where the notice ii only sub¬
scribed by the Inspector of Buildings; it must be issued in the name of
the Fire Department, besides being subscribed by the inspector. This
has just been decided by the O-eneral Term of the Supreme Court in the
auit of the Fire Department vs. the owners of the Sturtevant House,





Before the purchaser of land can successfully resist the performance of
bia contract on the ground of defect of title, there must be at least a
reasonable doubt as to the aeller'a title, such as afi'ecta its value and would
interfere witb its aale to a reaaonable purchaser. A defect in the record
title may be cured or removed by parol evidence. If you make a con.
tract to buy a house and take a deed at a future day you cannot make the
seller keep the premises in good repair unless you have bis agreement to
do so written in your contract.





It you hire premiaea and then the landlord fails to give you poaaeeslon
of them, you can make him pay damages, wbich will be tbe difference
between the rental value of tbe premisea and tbe rent that ycu agreed to
pay; and you cannot include in those damages tbe value of your time
employed in hunting up carpenters and painters to make alterations in
those premises, nor your labor spent in hunting for other premises after
tbe landlord failed to give you possession, nor the rent yon had to pay for
such other premises. So decided October 8, by the General Term of
the Supreme Court in the suit of Michael A, Coleman vs. Walter G. King.





CONSTITDTIOML AMENDMENT,





The World  of Business.

Not Money But Confideuce.

The condition of affairs on tbe Paris Bourse, as described by the London
Times, is peculiar and interesting. There, as here, new enterpriaes appeal
in vain to people with money. Bank failures and intemperate atock spec¬
ulation have put an almoat abaolute quietus on speculation and even
investment. Ho matter how alluringly the advertisements of new under¬
takings are worded the public refuses to put a sou in tbem. The offers of
tbe leading banka are treated with silent contempt, and a short time ago a
railway company of the beat credit found itself unable to sell an issue of
bonds, although tbere was not the sligbteat doubt that tbe bonds were good.
So distrustful of all Bourse securities havejthe public been made by the
failure of the Union Generale and by the reaction from tbe blind mania of
two years ago that it would now, the Times says, be distrustful of even
an offer of gold sovereigns at a discount. But the sullen public makes
tbree exceptions which prove that it is not money but confidence that is
lacking. It is willing to invest to any extent in three things: M. de
Lesseps' enterprises, the Credit Foncier, and Government loans. So
complete la the hold which tbe canal builder bas on tbe public of
France that he recently applied with brilhant success for a new
aupply of money, not because he needed it, but because he wanted to
have it ready when he might need it later on. With the proceeds of tbe
new loan M. de Leaseps now haa 104,000,000 at bia command. The Credit
Foncier is a land mortgage bank which receives money from the investing
public, and lends it on real estate security. Its loans average a million of
francs a day, and such are its opportunities for the employment of capital,
largely hy loans to municipalities who want money for public improve-
menta, that it is about to isaue a new series of bonda to the amount of $60,-
000,000. Its shares stand almost as high now as in the best days of the
Bourse, and tbere will be a scramble for ita new securities. There is some¬
thing a good deal hke tbis in the fact that the business of our Stock Ex¬
changes is almost stagnant,although the accumulations of funds in our banks
are very large, and the money market is ao easy that lenders are almost
discouraged. There ia plenty of money in the country and in the banks.
There are hundreds of millions of actual gold in the handa of the people
and hundreds of millions on deposit m the banks for which the owners can
find no permanent uae. There is plenty of money, but no confidence. We
have had bank failures like those which have disturbed French confidence,
and we are suffering from the same speculative excesses that have given
French stock exchange gamblers the headache, but we have had one
calamity which they have not experienced this time to any such extent aa
we. Our investing public have been affrighted by the conscienceless
way in which they have seen the directors of corporations use their power
for tbelr own enrichment at the expense of their wards, and confidence
has received a shock which it wili take years*to recover trora,—Chicago
Tribune,

An Ambitions Railroad Projects

Comparative little new mileage has heen huilt by the railroad companies
thia year, and little ia projected for next year. One of the new roada
designed is an air line between Funxsutaway, Fa., and Council Bluffs,
la. It is asserted by Mr. H. A. Schwanecke, one of its projectors, that
it will nowhere depart a greater distance than two milea from an exact
hne. It is to cross the northern part of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and is
to have branches to Chicago and St. Louis. We would regard it as a
mere project, but it is stated that the money, $40,000,000, is already
secured, that tbe charters are obtained from all the five States, and that
the location is to be fixed this year and construction to begin early next
aeason. It is also stated that none of the stocks and bonds are to be put
on the market, and that certain gentlemen of Hew fork and Pennsylvania,
whose names are given, are in it. The statements are so positive that we
suppoae the rood ia really to be built. It is claimed for it that it will be
15(1 miles shorter than any other roads connecting the same pointa, and
that it will be of easier grades than any other, not even exceptmg the
Hew York Central. It ia to be connected with Pittsburg by the Pittsburg
Sc Western, and the distance between Pittsburg and Hew York is to be 30
miles shorter than via tbe Pennsylvania road, and Vi miles shorter than
via the new road wbich Vanderbilt is buildmg, the Harriaburg Sc West¬
ern. Tbis is evidently going to be the most ambitious project of the next
year. The moat considerable roada now building are Vanderbilt's, men¬
tioned above, and the Baltimore & Ohio's new line between Baltimore and
Philadelphia, and perhaps we should mention the Pennsylvania's Heading
extension to the east, and In the ^est ihe extensions of the Hock Island
under different names in Minnesota and Dakota, and the connection
between tbe Union Pacific's Oregon Short Line and the Oregon Railway
Se Navigation roads. The Northern Pacific is building its Cascade aec¬
tion, and several companies are extending in Dakota, Minnesota aud Wis¬
consin; but nearly all these extensions are completions of existing projects
and involve nothing new. The road which we first mentioned amounts
practically to a new competing line between New York city and the Mis¬
souri Hiver. It is not probable that a great deal of building will be done
next year; if this year's record, say S,5(j0 miles thus far, is equaled, it will
be OS fair an exhibit as can now be anticipated.—Neio Orleans Picayune.

The Value of our €rops>

While the politicians were holding conventions and fighting the eam-
paigi:a in Maine and Ohio, the crops were growing. And now, when the
merchant and manufacturer are complainmg of dull times, and everybody
ia awaiting the result of tbe election, to see if we are likely to have unwise
legislation that will still further increase the business depression, the
farmer drives bis team aSeld with a light heart, for nature has been boun¬
tiful and the harvests abundant Whatever the result at the polls, we
need not, as a nation, fear going to bed hungry because of an empty larder,
nor doubt that we shall be able to raise a little spending money by selling
part of our surplus crops to tbe neighbors. We have raised, it is esti¬
mated, about 52O,O0O,OUO bushels of wheat and 1,800,000,000 bushels of com,
with oats, barley, potatoes, beans, bay, etc., in proportion. The poHticiana .
may wrangle and the voters imagine vain things, but tbe honest tiller of
the soil will be undisturbed by any of them, secure in baviug well per¬
formed hispart, andinhis bounteous reward by nature. Considered in tbe
abstract the sum totals of theae crops do not convey a very definite idea to
the mind. But it ia more easily comprehended on saying that the5;^,000,000
buahels of wheat would give every one of the 57,000,000 of people now
in the United States a httle over nine buahela apiece. Four yeara ago tbe
yield was almost ten Lushels per capita, so that the present wheat crop is
smaller in proportior than in 1880 wbile the price per bushel is lower and
will remain lownr, probably. But there will Ce some advantages in the
lower price; more of it will be consumed at home, more people being able
to substitute wheat flower for corn-meal; our own country will get the
benefit of tbe lower prices before the wheat ia called out of it by foreign
demand, while this increased home demand will after a whfie tend to raise
the price. Although the crop of 1SS4 is smaller in ratio than that of IbSO,
yet the gain In production is greater than the increase of population. The
increase in population since 1870 has beeu about 48 per cent., but tbe
increaae in the wheat crop has been over 130 per cent,, which is really too
high, aa the wheat crop of 1870 was very fight, Thia increase ia almost
wholly due to the use of macbinerv in the fields. The corn crop of 1884 is
the largest ever raised by our faiiners. A yield of 1,800,000,000 bushels
would have covered over 69,000, JOO acres, if the statistician of tbe Depart¬
ment of Agriculture ia right iu placing the average yield per acre at
twenty-six bushels.   That means that if in one great field the size uf it