February 13, 1887





The   Record   and   Guide,





191





gables.   The composition and the treatment of this front are so
good that it deserves to be seen to better advantage.

The end on Vesey street ie also an effective composition, recall¬
ing, without repeating, a Gothic front by the same designer in East
Fifty-ninth street. The greater part of its fifty feet of breadth is
covered by a gable of moderate pitch filled with stone at the apex,
leaving at the side space for one ample opening iu each of the
three stories. The gabled part consists in the first story,, of an
arched doorway deeply splayed and heavily moulded, the mould¬
ings dying into the jamb at the impost without corbels or capitals.
The doorway itself is square-headed, and the head of the arch is
filled with a blind tracery of mullions in stone work. At the side
of this archway is a square window, with a similar window in the
second story. Alongside of this latter, and over the archway, is a
stretch of plain wall relieved by a niche with an ogee canopy
ending in a crocketed finial, and directly above this again a range
of small openings apparently lighting the hallway. The feature
thus formed, though simple, is a more elaborate piece of architec¬
ture than any other in the building thus far and is very successful.
The south end on Fulton street resembles that on Vesey street,
except that, being narrower, it is altogether covered by its gable,
which is bisected by a tall chimney stack, of which three flues are
produced on the wall and continued downward to the top of the
second story. The doorway at the corner repeats that already
described, except that the blind tracery in the head of the archway
is cusped mstead of muUioned.

Tiie eastern front towards Broadway is the most conspicuous of
all, being visible at an effective distance and being of the same
length as the front on Church street. It is broken on the ground
plan only by the projection at the north end. At the south end is
a group of three gables and at the north end one, being the roofing
of the projection at that end. The wall between is buttressed
and divided into four bays of three stories each, as already
described in the south front, an additional story accruing at the
ends in the gables. Under the central one of the three southern
gables is a shallow three-sided oriel of stone running through two
stories. At the north end the windows are grouped in the centre
of the pavilion, the central window in the third story rising
above those at the sides, though all are square-headed.

These dispositions prevent the extreme simplicity of the ground
plan from becoming monotonous. The projections and the slight
differences in the treatment relieve the wall surfaces from this
danger, while the sky-line is animated by the introduction of the
gables, by emphatic chimney-stacks, and by a questionable cupola
at the north end which looks too much as if it existed for this sole
purpose and is not altogether congruous with the rest of the archi¬
tecture. It is almost the only feature that does not seem to have
grown naturally out of the requirements of the plan and to have
imposed itself on the architect whom, on the contrary, we suspect
of having imposed it on the building. Practically, the building
can scarcely fail to fulfil completely its purposes, -A building only
35 feet deep and open on both sides certainly should not lack for
light and air. Architecturally, it is one of the most consolatory
objects to be seen down town, and it is almost a niatter of regret
that no other owner of real estate than the corporation of Trinity
has any inducement to go and do likewise.





paying he would raise the taxes from less than 3 to 5 per cent. It
is probable that builders and laborers would be willing to second
these demands, but they will be anything but satisfactory to tax¬
payers who think their present burdens quite heavy enough. Yet,
certainly, New York wants more improvements. It is deficient in
school buildings, and the Health Department should be permitted
to spend more money than it now does. Then we certainly do want
a municipal building for the uss of the city departments which
now pay extravagant rents to private owners.





City Improvements and the Working People.

At the various conventions and meetings of workingmen a great
many resolutions are proposed and platforms adopted which are
vague and impracticable. This is particularly the case in the pro¬
grammes suggested for our municipal government, but a writer in
John Swinton''s Paper, speaking in behalf of the 68,000 who voted
for Henry Geoirge, tells them to urge on the authorilies the follow¬
ing measures:

Let them demand that the city erect and own its own public buildings,
instead of paying out over $100,000 per annum for rents.

Let them demand that not less than $10,000,000 be expended for public
works, instead of $3,759,730, which is all that has been allowed for 1887;
and at least $3,000,000 for public parks, instead of $840,75u, as the amount
now stands.

Let them demand a round $6,000,000 for education instead of $3,993,187.
We need $3,000,000 right away for new school-houses in the upper wards,
the present facilities being entirely inadequate.

Let them demand $3,003,000 for street cleansing instead of $1,050,000;
and $1,000,000 for the Health Department, instead of a beggarly $312,660.

This would do very well for a starter. IE the Board of Estimate aud
Apportionment do not heed their demands, then let them appeal to the
Legislature.

Extravagant! think you, Mr. Labor Reformer ! these ideas of mine ?
Not extravagant, Mr, Labor Reformer, only large, progressive, that is
all. What has labor to do with cheese-paring kitchen economy of the
Hewitt-Atkinson stripe? Why, except for the rascality and corruption of
It, the best government 'New York city ever had was under the old
" Tweed Ring," and the evidences of it will exist for a long time to come.

At the game time the writer objscts to the continuance of our
present large municipal debt, and says we ought to pay off $10,000,000
^f-To |©t ^ijg iRouey ^r |lje improyenie»ts and |be 4eb|





Our Prophetic Department.

Inquieer—Suppose we discuss some one of the larger topic to- -
day; for instance, the subject of emigration, and in this connection
the prospects of the different newer sections of the country.   The
development of Southern industries strikes me as being particularly
interesting just now.

Sir Obacle—There is this to be said about emigration. When
families change their homes they generally go West, or, rather,
they follow isothermal lines, A Spaniard or Italian moves to
South or Central America ; the German inclines to the temperate
zone, such as Missouri and Kansas ; the English and Irish come to
our Middle States, while the Norwegian is not satisfied with any¬
thing warmer than Minnesota or Dakota, The same tendency
holds good with our home emigrations. The man born in Maine
removes to the cold regions west of the lakes. The New Englander
emigrates to Western New York, Northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, and due west from those regions. Pennsylvanians and
Jerseymen follow the line of latitude and seek the region that
reproduces their old homes, at least so far as the weather is
concerned. But, as a general thing. Southern people do not in
large masses seek Northern homes, nor do the people born in cold
climates migrate to warm regions.

Inq.—But what have you to say to the development of the
mineral regions of the South ? Is it not true that there is now a
Northern emigration pouring into the mineral zone which runs
west from North Carolina to the Mississippi River and includes
Northern Georgia, Northern Alabama and Mississippi and the
State of Tennessee ?

Sir O,—The next census will, I think, show a much more remark¬
able increase in the industries of that region than in the number of
outsiders who have settled there. While coal, iron and other
mineral lands have advanced enormously in value we do not hear
that there has been any corresponding increase in the value of
agricultural lands which would have been the case had there been
any large increase of the white inhabitants. Capitalists and quite
a number of skilled workmen have undoubtedly come from Penn¬
sylvania and other States to develop the coal and iron lands of this
rapidly-increasing section of the Southern States, but the improve¬
ment has been inainly among the native whites and negroes who
have more work and better pay.

Inq.—But will there not be a strong attraction for emmi-
grants to go to that improving Southern country in view of its
vast industrial possibilities ?

Sir O,—Some of the readers of these conversations will wit¬
ness quite a "boom" some day in the agricultural lands of Vir¬
ginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Northern Georgia,
Alabama and Mississippi; in other words, the time is not distant
when the extreme West and Northwest^ will not seem so attractive
to the emigrant as the States I have indicated. There are plenty
of fertile lands there very cheap, and every year becoming more
desirable because of their nearness to home markets of consumption.
Inq,—In that case the railroad securities of the South must
grow steadily in value ?

Sir O.—As a matter of course. It is estimated that it requires 150
acres of cotton lands to produce ono car load of freight, while 80
acres of land in Kansas, producing grain and fattening cattle, will
fill six freight cars in a year. A manufacturing community sup¬
plies a still larger traffic to the railroads. The change, therefore,
from cotton growing to diversified industries means a practical
tripling or quadrupling of the business of the Southern lines. We
do not hear of any paralleling of roads in that region, but, on the
contrary, there is a consolidating of interests which will check
competition and permit of large economies in the management of
Southern systems of railway.

Inq,—As I understand it, the Richmond Terminal now controls
the Richmond & Danville, East Tennessee & Memphis and
Charleston roads, embracing over 4,100 miles of territory. It is an
open secret that the Norfolk & Western and the Georgia Central
will in time be operated by the same company. iThen, it is further
said, a new bridge is to be built over the Mississippi at Memphis
and a new road constructed to Kansas City, all of which will'
belong to the same system—the R, T.

Sir O.—It is written in the book of fate thatjRichmond Terminal
will be one of the great railway systems of the country, as great,
indeed, as the Vanderbilts if they were consolidated, or as the Penn-
fiylvania Qeutral, - "yi^^ye will be .moaejrmade^ and a ^reat deal ol





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