1108





Record  and  Guide.





September 16, 1888





corner in them. A few powerful owners have put up the price so
as to milk the Treasury of its surplus, and both President Cleveland
and Candidate Harrison are in favor of pouring the money of the
nation into the pockets of these " bloated bondholders."

It is doubtful if these letters of acceptance will gain or lose any
votes for the candidates of the two parties. The recent elections
seem to indicate that the relative strength of the two parties is
about what it was four years ago. If anything, the Republicans
have made slight gains. The contest -will be decided by the States
of Indiana, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. The result
grows more doubtful every day. At present vpi-iting the chances
seem to favor the re-election of President Cleveland. He has
always been a lucky candidate for whatever office he ran. Apart
from the vote on the Presidential ticket it looks as though a Con¬
gress will be returned favorable to protection.





An TInpremeclitated Eeal Estate Movement.

Tbe changes to be observed in Lafayette place dm-ing the last
few years seem at first thought to be quite unaccfiuntable. A mem¬
ber of the old aristocracy who inhabited that thorouglifare when its
chief distinction, after the Astor Library,was patrician dweUings of
the old style would have to pinch lumself to make sure that he was
awake were he now to revisit the street for the first time since his
migration up town. He would at least be certain to appreciate the
sensations of Rip Van "Winkle, when that distinguished person
awoke from his twenty years' snooze among the Catskills, and
saw around him the evidence that there had been a political
earthquake.

Lafayette place is now no thoroughfare in the strict sense of the
term, but it is so located that it may connect with the sti-eets of
which it seems to be a continuation. It is about its breadth fui-ther
away from Bi-oadway than Crosby street, and to the northward its
lines intersect the Stewart building. It has never offered more than
an eddy for the cm-rent of traflic, and it is presumed that it wUl
maintain its old position for au indefinite length of time or until
Elm street is extended. Yet it is now one of the most noticeable
streets of the city, not only for the rapidity of its improvement, but
for the substantial character of its new structures.

The tide began with the construction of the great buUding on the
corner of Astor place, originally designed for a carriage factory or
warehouse, but now occupied, among other publishers, by the pub¬
lishing firm of J. J. Little & Co. The Whiting JIanufacturing Com¬
pany's building, on the corner of 4th street, may have preceded the
Astor place corner building by a short time, but this is a Broadway
sti-ucture only extending to Lafayette place. After the buUding on
the Astor place corner came the splendid Mission house of the late
Father Drumgoole on the corner of Great Jones sti-eet, and, finally,
two or three years ago, the improvement fever broke forth in full
force, and the street is now undergoing a veritable process of trans-
figm-ation. The De Vinne Press building, built about as sohdly as
the great down-town sti-uctures, rears its seven story and basement
walls on the northeast corner of 4th street; a substantial business
structure of combined brick and u-on, extending more than 100 feet
on Lafayette place, occupies the northwest corner opposite; and on
the corner of Great Jones street, opposite the Mission buUding, one
of the most tasteful business buildings to be found in the city will
soon be completed. The architectural design of this buUding is ex¬
ceedingly picturesque and original. The material is of combined
gi-anite, iron, red stoue, and brown and MUwaukee brick. The wall
face rising in narrow, pUaster-shaped piers between the high and
arched windows of the lower four stories, rests upon short iron
columns several feet in diameter near the base, and these in turn
are supported on granite phnths equaUy suggestive of strength and
durabiUty. The caps of the piers at the base of the arches in the
fourth story are surmounted with terra cotta bas-rehef s, representing
grotesque heads, and half way down, where the piers are buttressed
to project beyond the wall face, other decorations of the same ma¬
terial help to reheve the facade of any suggestion of baldness. When
we add to these structures the recent extension of the Astor
Library and the elegant Gothic facade of marble and MUwaukee
brick, built by the late Miss Wolfe for the use of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, it will be seen that Lafayette place is some¬
what more than keeping pace with the best sections of the old city.
But the wonder for this sudden turn of the building movement
wiU in part subside when one walks through the short street and
observes the signs which denote the line of industrial and business
activity which is chiefly followed. It begins to look as if Lafayette
place was destined to become eventually the chief centre of the
metropolitan book manufactm-ing, publishing, and literary voca¬
tion. In the first place, the library centre of New York is in the
immediate neighborhood. The Astor Library is on the street, the
Mercantile Library is at its terminus, the Cooper Union Library is
just around the corner, and the Society Library and the Appren¬
tices' Library on 16th street are not far away. These are
powerful Uterai y magnets, and for years past they seem to have
been drawing the book manufacturers to the neighborhood.    On





Broadway, between Clinton place and Waverly place there are no
less than a score of pubhshers of books, magazines and other period¬
icals, the list including the large firms of Scribner's Sons, and Dodd,
Mead & Co. On Astor place one shoemaker holds the fort in the
big building on the corner of Lafayette place ; but almost every
other kind of trade except book manufactm-ing has been expelled,
and there are possibly a dozen diffei-ent pubUshing fii-ms clustered
right here in a body. When you pass around the corner into
Lafayette place you find the same story continued. The signs of
bookbinders, electi'otypers, and stereotypers meet you at evei-y
turn, and the editor seems to be ubiquitous. FinaUy, you reach the
great De Vinne Press building, where the Centwy magazine has
recently burrowed, and given up the attempt at remaining in the
outer currents of the maelsti-om. Everything seems di-awing towards
this common vortex. The Appletons are not far away, and would
be just in the swim were Lafayette place cut through to Bond
street. The Bible House, w^hich sends out its miUion books a year,
is right at hand, and it is even a common rumor that Mrs. Fi-ank
Leslie intends to occupy the elegant new building at the corner of
Lafayette place and Great Jones street. But this rumor is appa¬
rently only an on dit which is proverbiaUy unreliable.

It will be well to know what business is likely to thrive in this
old street which is now becoming so wonderfuUy new. It would
evidently not be a good place to locate a dry-goods' store, and some
observers suspect that the large clothing firm which occupies the
new buUding on the corner of Fourth street will eventually find
itself misplaced.

More Good Money Wanted,

"^Vllen, before he took Iiis seat in the White House, President¬
elect Cleveland caUed upon Congi-ess to repeal the SUver Coinage
Act, it was evident he thought there was such a tiling as too much
currency in the channels of trade; but he seems to have learnt
something since his occupancy of the Presidential chair. In his
letter of acceptance he says :

It is a great mistake to suppose tbat tbe consequences which follow tbe
continual withdrawal and hoarding by the government of the currency of
. tbe people ai-e not of immediate importance to the mass of om- citizens, and
only concerns those engaged in large financial transactions. In the rest¬
less enterprise and activity which free and ready money among tbe people
produces, is found tbat opportunity for labor and employment and tbat
impetus to business and production which bring in their train prosperity
to our citizens iu every station and vocation. New ventures, uew invest¬
ments in business and mauufactm-e, the consti-uction of new and important
works, and the enlargement of enterprises ah-eady established, depend
largely upon obtainmg money upou easy terms with fau- security; and all
these things are stimulated by an abundant volume of cu-culating medium.
Even the harvested grain of tbe farmer remains without a market unless
money is forthcoming for its movement and transportation to the seaboard.

There is more to the same effect. It is well that the Executive
sees the necessity for an abundant supply of real money. Had the
coinage law been repealed our population would have gone on
increasing without any con-espondtng addition to the cu-culating
medium. As the President points out; " It is quite apparent that
when tills perfectly natural, if not inevitable, stage is reached,
depression in all business aud enterprise wiU, as a necessary conse¬
quence, lessen the opportunity for work and employment, and
reduce salaries and the wages of labor."

The present activity in business is clearly due to the emission of
sUver certificates based on tbe coined sUver doUars which Mr,
Cleveland was so earnestly and mistakenly desirous of stopping
when he took his place in the Wliite House. As we have often said,
no nation can have too much gold and silver currency ; and it is
stUl better off when it has a paper cui-rency convertible into the
precious metals. What we uow need is the putting of silver on the
same plane as gold. There should be as free coinage of one as of
the other precious metal.

Something must be done to reUeve traffic on Broadway below the
City Hall Park, There is a congestion of vehicles there from eight
o'clock in the morning to seven at night. Mayor Hewitt would do
weU to appoint a commission of experts to see what could be
done to facihtate the transit of wagons, carts, trucks and the like
in the lower part of the city. How would it do to take a portion of
the sidewalk and so add to the width of the thoroughfare for vehi¬
cles? Then, to make room for pedestrians, why not have a walk or
a pathway constructed on a level with the second story of stores
from say Wall street to Ann or Vesey streets? This structure
could be made ornamental and would protect the first story and
the front of the stores from storms. Something of the same kind
might be done in Greenwich street and CoUege place, where there
is often a congestion of vehicular travel. So gorged is lower Broad¬
way that passengers on the cars often lose a half an hour in travel¬
ing from Wall street to the Post-office. Something must be done to

reUeve Uiat thoroughfare, and that before very long.

----------•----------

There, of course, is no danger of the spread of yellow fever in
this city. Even if there were a dozen or twenty cases it need' not
aJarm the bulk of our citizens, as the fiirst touch of cold weather ,