April 3, 1886





The   Record and Guide.





423





traveling passenger agent the influence of " railroad politics" is felt. The
appointive power is not so absolute or unfettered in actual politics as in
the railroad service. The directors are the creatures of the dominant fac¬
tion among the stockholders, aud are aggressive or conservative according
to the ideas of the many or few who may happen to hold or control the
greater number of shares. The president of the company is more absolutely
the creature of the same dominant faction in the directory than is a gover¬
nor of a State a servant of the party that elects him. From this point on
down to tho lowest ranks this political influence is felt and respected. As
applied to the lower grades of the service it is called disicipline, and is a
very valuable feature of an extensive system requiring harmonious action
in order to secure business success, but in the middle ranks or general
agents and general officers politics is the only term which, in a majority of
cases, conveys a correct idea of the relations that exist. It is this which
makes railroad positions so proverbially insecure. The danger that an
employe, no matter how faithful and competent, may have to stand aside
to make room for the friend of a superior officer in order that the employe's
superintendent may make himself " solid" with the superior officer is too
often not fancied, but real. The permanence of place that rewards the effi¬
cient service of an individual, or firm, or private corporation, adds a feel¬
ing of security and encourages a pez-sonal interest in the work to be accom¬
plished which, it is the testimony of many railroad men, is seldom acquired
by them.—Minneapolis Evening Journal.





Big lumber companies in the West have found great profits in cutting
up timber on Government lands. One company in California has already
trespassed on the public domain to the extent of 65,0l'0,0u0 feet. Suits
are now pending against a Montana company, controlled by the North¬
ern Pacific Railroad Company, to recover six hundred thousand dollars
value of timber illegally cut from the public lands. The entire course of
corporations aud subservient agents of the government in'the timber dis¬
tricts of the West seems to have involved undisguised robbery of the pub
lie domain and wasteful spoliation of forests that can never be renewed.
The timber trespasser is beginning to feel the effects of Land Commis¬
sioner Sparks' new departure in dealing with despoilers and plunderers of
public property; but long immunity has induced iu his mind an erro¬
neous belief that the timber belonging to the people may be converted to
private uses with impunity. There should be no further delay in correct¬
ing this idea by punishments severe and exemplary.—Philadelphia Record.
--------•--------

The Storm King bridge will be built.   Great interests were behind it, the
greatest being the coal dealers and carriers of New England who wish to

fetthe product of the Pennsylvania mines by a short cut across the Hudson,
'he bridge vi^ill bo a canti-lever 153 feet above the water of the river. The
piers will be on either side. The side spans which support the central one
will be 840 feet long. It will be one of the most remarkable bridge struct¬
ures in the world when it is completed. Viewed from the river below it
will appear wholly inadequate to the purpose of bearing a train of cars.
The necessary money to build the bridge has been raised by bonds issued by
the New England and Southwestern Railway Company. It is believed that
the bridge will reduce the price of coal 50 cents a ton in New England and
bring the cotton supply of the South much nearer than ever before to the
New England factories. It is evident that it will be a much better invest¬
ment than the Hoosac tunnel.—Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.





The PhUadelphia Times, a monomaniac on the side of the single gold
standard, says: " It has come to be the prevailing opinion among financiers
that the business interests of the country, for the presenfc at least, cannot
suffer by a failure to suspend the coinage of silver." Precisely. But does
it never strike a journal like the Times that by annually predicting disaster
at the beginning of each session of Congress, and then calmly admitting
that their predictions were absurd, they are subjecting their prophetic
reputation to needless wear aud tear 'i—San Francisco Evening Post.
--------•--------

The vagaries of the metropolitan daUy press pass all understanding. The
Herald, which for years has boasted that ifc paid ifcs reportorial staff, who
were on space, the highesfc price per column, in order fco secure fche besfc
talent, have this week reduced their space price to $5 per column. Upon
the same day the World raised its price to $8 per column. The latter
newspaper, it is said, is now paying the highest prices for reportorial and
special work of any paper in the city. Joe Howard, who for so many years
has been the star man on the Herald's staff, has just joined the World, and
is in receipfc, so he says, of $80 per week salary.





The fiffch volume of the "Block Book of Manhattan Island," jusfc pub.
lished by W. T. Comstock, gives details of the blocks and lots in the Nine¬
fceenfch Ward, showing the dimensions in feet and inches of each lot and
plofc of ground in accordance with the Assessors' maps. Other volumes are
to foUow, and the work when completed will include maps of Manhafcfcan
Island up fco One Hundred and Fif fcy-fif fch streefc.





Real   Estate  Department.





This has been a fairly acfcive week in real esfcate circles, though the earlier
part of it, owing to the inclemency of fche weafcher, was not as satisfactory
to brokers and agents as the last few days. There has been quite a good
deal of renting done already. One thing seems clear that owing to the
paucity of small private houses, persons of moderate means are relegating
their homes to flats and apartment honses for the ensuing year. There
would be a greafc opening for small dwellings north of the Cenfcral Park were
they sufficiently numerous. The difficulty on the wesfc side proper is, fchat
the builders who erect their houses there in nearly every case try to sell
them, and there are many such between Sixty-ninth and One Hundredth
streets which have long remained vacant for that reason. Houses renting
for $800 to $1,200 anywhere in the city go off like " hot cakes," to use the
familiar phrase. There is a large region prepared for building purposes
north of the Central Park, between One Hundred and Tenth and One Hun¬
dred and Twenty-second streets, and again north of One Hundred and
Thirty-fifth street. It is in these regions that lots are sufficiently low in
price yet to enable investors and buUders to put up hundreds of small
private houses which would sell at about $10,000, or rent for about $800 or
a little more; whereas further south on the west side the small " boom" of
the last two years has sent lots so high that nofching less fchan an $18,000 or
$20,000 or even a more costly private house can be buUfc anywhere round
that region, a price rather beyond the class of privafce houses for which
there is the most demand.

At the Real Esfcafce Exchange this week, the active days were Tuesday,
Wednesday and Friday. Thursday, for the firsfc time in a year, made the
smallest showing of any day during the week, only one sale being made.





The reason a53ign3i by a broker was that ifc was All Pools' Day, and that
owners of ijroperfcy had a peculiar aversion fco choosing April 1 for fche dis¬
posal of their realfcy.

On Monday fche three buildings Nos. 2, 4 and 6 Walker sfcreefc, ruiming
fchrough fco 137 Wesfc Broadway, were sold to Louis Sommers for $50,000.
The properfcy covers aboufc one lofc and a-half. Sevenfceen lofcs on Norfch
sfcreefc, Lockwood and BurUng lanes, afc New Rochelle, N. Y., were
announced for sale, but after the first was sold for $676.50 the remaining
sixfceen were wifchdrawn.

T jesday was fche busiesfc day on 'Change, when a number of execufcors'
sales took place. The four-story house No. 17 West Twenty-fourth street
sold for $39,250; a similar house afc No. 40 Easfc Sevenfcy-sixfch street went
for $33,000, and a like house, 16.8 feefc fronfc, at 79 East Seventy-ninth streefc
for $26,350. A tenemenfc on Broome sfcreefc, near Mangin, sold for $17,200;
a four-sfcory house at No. 153 West Forty-eighth street, for $26,750, and a
handsome residence at No. 787 Madison avenue, south of Sixty-seventh
sfcreefc, for $33,000. Four lots, with frame house and stable, on the norfch
side of One Hundred and Thirfcy-third street, west of Fifth avenue, sold for
$20,550; two lots on Forty-eighth streefc, easfcj of Elevenfch avenue, went for
$3,500 each; several lots on Washingfcon Heighfcs, sifcuate on Sedgwick
avenue, near Two Hundred and Fifth street, were knocked down to Hugh
N. Camp for $495 each; three lots on Thirty-ninth street, wesfc of Tenfch
avenue, sold for from $5,925 to $0,150 each, and three lots on One Hundred
and Twenfcy-second sfcreefc, wesfc of Sixth avenue, for $24,250. A plot of lots
afc New Ufcrecht, L. I., was disposed of, and a four-story brick sfcore at Nos.
108 and 110 West Fifty-third street sold for $35,000. The receiver's sale of
No. 131 East One Hundred and Twelfth street was adjourned till AprU 6.
The most important sale of the day was that of Nos. 565 and 567 Broadway.
This is a six-story marble front buUding, occupying a little over two lots'
on the southwest corner of Broadway and Prince street. It is a fire-proof
structure, and was occupied by Ball, Black & Co. for fifteen years, and
subsequently by the American and Homer Lee Bank Note companies. The
parcel, which comprises about 5,100 square feet, was withdrawn on a bid of
$227,500, or about $44.60 per square foot.

On Wednesday the five-story brick factory on the norfcheaafc corner of
Second avenue and Twenfcy-second sfcreefc, covering Nos. 383 fco 338 on fche
avenue and 307 fco 311 on the streefc, was sold for $134,500. The properfcy
occupies eighfc lofcs. The execufcors' sale of fche five four-sfcory flafcs on Fif fcy-
second sfcreefc, near Park avenue, resnlfced in their bringing $16,700 each, and
the assignee's sale of the 19-foot house. No. 1,318 Fifth avenue, near
Eighty-sixth street, realized $52,000. The southeast corner of Greenwich
and Thomas streets, and the buildings thereon, brought $18,150, and No.
313 West Fifty-fifth street was withdrawn. A good deal of interest attached
fco the disposal of the old Bowne property at Flushing, L. I. There were
four parcels sold, one bringing $10,100 and fche others $7,400, $7,000 and
$3,800, respecfcively.

On Thursday only one sale took place—that of the 18-foofc house. No. 475
West Seventy-third street, which went for $19,300. The lofc is only 70.8
feefc deep.   No. 140 Monroe streefc was wifchdrawn.

On Friday some imporfcanfc parcels were announced for disposal.
No. 589 Broadway was fche mosfc valuable, but the sale was posfcponed fciU the
29th inst. No. 19 East Thirty-first street was withdravra. No. 1603 Broad¬
way was sold to the plaintiff for $23,000; the stone front house No. 549 Fifth
avenue, near Forty-fifth street, knocked down at $36,500 over and above a
mortgage of $31,121; a 27-foot house at 115 East Eightieth street sold for
$32,500, and a frame dwelling on a 35-foot lot at No. 321 East One Hundred
and Ninth street went for $4,000. Five lots on the south side of Forty-third
street, 125 feet west of Fifth avenue, leased for twenty years from May 1,
with three renewals, were knocked down fco J. Romaine Brown for $4,100,
the ground rent is $675 per annum.

E. H. Ludlow & Co. wiU sell for execufcors on Monday, April 5. twenty-
eighfc lofcs on Ninfch and New avenues. One Hundred and Twenfcy-firsfc and
One Hundred and Twenty-second streefcs, opposifce fco the Morningside Park,
comprising an entire block; also one lot on the southeast corner of New
avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-firsfc sfcreefc, 20x100.11 feefc.

Richard V. Harnefcfc will, on Tuesday, April 6, sell the valuable plofc of
ground on fche southwest corner of Sixth avenue and Forfcy-sevenfch sfcreet,
125.3 on the avenue xlOO on the street xl31.9 feet on rear, with seven three-
story brick stores, apartments and lofts, all of which are well rented. It is
announced that jthe property wUl be sold on very favorable terms, and ifc
cannofc fail fco afcfcract the attention of solid investors.

Mr. Harnetfc wUl also seU on the same day the following pieces of prop¬
erfcy : No. 985 Lexingfcon avenue, near Sevenfcy-second streefc; Nos. 29 and
31 Bieecker sfcreet, between Broadway and the Bowery; No. 230 Thompson
street, near West Third street; No. 126 Mulberry sfcreefc, a five-sfcory brick
tenement; the brown sfcone dwelling No. 160 Easfc Eighfcy-fchird sfcreefc; the
four-sfcory double brick fcenemenfc and sfcores No. 348 Stanton streefc; the
brown stone dweUing No. 104 West Forfcy-fchird sfcreefc; the four lots on the
northwest [corner of Sixth avenue and Fifty-eighth street, 100.5 on the
avenue and 71.6 on the street; two lots on the soufch side of Fiffcy ninth
streefc, 25 feefc wesfc of Sixfch avenue, and tbe handsome plot on Fiffcy-eighfch
and Fiffcy-ninfch sfcreefc, westof Sixth avenue, 53.5x200.10, comprising five
and six-story brick and stone buUdings, well known as the Charlier
Insfcifcufce.

Adrian H. Muller wiU seU on Tuesday, AprU 6fch, the two four-sfcory
aparfcment houses Nos. 132 and 134 East Fiffciefch sfcreefc, befcween Lexingfcon
and Third avenues. Seventy per cenfc. of fche purchase money may remain
on morfcgage.

Richard V. Harnefcfc wUl, on Wednesday, April 7fch, offer the improved
properties No. 137 Grand street. No. 138' SulUvan sfcreet, Nos. 114 and
150 Wesfc Thirfceenfch sfcreefc, between Sixfch and Seventh avenues; Nos. 412,
414 and 416 West Fiffcy-fourfch sfcreefc, and two lofcs on One ^Hundred and
Thirfcy-fchird sfcreefc, near Sixth avenue; also the leasehold of the four-sfcory
brown sfcone house wifch exfcension, No. 53 East Ninfch sfcreet—the leasehold
runs twenty-one years from May 1873, with the usual renewals, ground rent