570





The Real Estate Record





June L 1881





evening fares, or to diminish the commission
hours. But there ought to be some re¬
organization of the Manhattan directory.
The manipulators of the stock have man¬
aged to enrich themselves, and have skill¬
fully avoided personal responsibility by
getting up a hue and cry against the roads,
so as to save themselves. It would be no
harm were the Manhattan to default in July;
then a receiver would be appointed, and the
road re-organized.

Who can doubt but what there is a mag¬
nificent future before the elevated road
system. Within a few years there will be
tributary to it the suburban rapid transit
systems north of the Harlem, Already is
the Metropolitan a link in a new way of
reaching Boston. Depots have already been
pm-chased, and are fitted up in Ninth avenue
and Fifty-third street for freight and passen¬
ger stations for the New York & Northem
Railway, When th e excessive taxation is re¬
duced, and the 10 per cent, lease scaled, the
elevated road system will be extended on
this island and the stock be more profitable
than that of the horse-car companies which
it will replace.





NEW YORK AND CHICAGO TO THE
FRONT,

Undoubtedly St. Louis and New Orleans,
with the help of Jay Gould, are trying to di¬
vert the great traffic down the Mississippi
on its way to Europe. Should this move¬
ment have any success, it would be a serious
matter for New York, which would loose
not only the profits on handling grain at this
port, but the dividends on the stock of the
railroads which now briag food products
from the West, In that case New ^ ork re¬
alty would suffer and the progress of our
city would be retarded to the advantage of
New Orleans and St, Louis.

There are two objections to the Mississippi
route. One is the loss of time and extra in¬
surance in sending grain to Europe by the
way of New Orleans, and the other is the
impossibility of getting return cargoes in the
vessels engaged in the grain trade. A con¬
vention is shortly to meet in Davenport, la.,
which may have important results. Itis
called va. the interest of Chicago, which
wishes to deepen and widen the canal which
now connects the Mississippi with the lakes
at Chicago, Of course the retention of trade
by Chicago involves the use of the railroads
between NewYork and that city for the
transport of grain. While the Chicago peo¬
ple are agitating for an improvement in the
canal which connects her with the Missisip-
pi. New York is taking the toUs off of its
canal and is building and opening a number
of extra lines 'to Chicago. The Seney line,
so called, is duplicating: the track of the
Lake Shore road from Chicago to Buffalo.
To that point from the east there are now
three lines imder way, the Lackawanna ex¬
tension from Binghamton, the West Shore
& Western, which is a practical duplication
of the Central road, the connection wich
New York being at the west side instead of
at the east side of the Hudson. This new
line will commence at Weehawken and is al¬
ready built to Haverstraw. It i.s now cut¬
ting a tunnel through West Point, ahd will
continue up to Athens, from which point it
will run weat to Schenf^ctadA- and on through
aU the principal towns on the line of the New
York Central road, except Rochester, until
it finally reaches Buffalo.   It will run on the





south side of the Erie Canal. Then, the
Continental Construction Company has com¬
menced the building of another parallel road
north of the Erie Canal. This will be in the
interest of Boston capitahsts, who expect to
use the Hoosac Tunnel for their new line.

Nor is this all. The Ontario & Western is
rebuilding its road to Oswego, at which
point it will receive the grain which comes
through the Welland Canal, soon to be
opened. So as to naake assurance doubly
sure, the O, & W, will also have a western
railway connection by way of the south
shore of Lake Ontario, It will thus be seen
that NewYork is vastly increasing the facil¬
ities for handling the traffic of the West.
It is difficult to see how all these enterprises
can pay; but whether they pay or not, they
are tributary to the metropolis. Hence we
do not think that the competition of either
New Orleans or Montreal is likely to take
away from New York the vast trade of the
west and northwest.





ABOUT MINING STOCKS.

We have paid attention to mining stocks
in these columns because it is easy to foresee
that investors will be urged to take shares
in this or that enterprise and that the mar¬
ket in New York is destined to be a very
large one, James R. Keene is credited with
saying that mining will be as important an
interest as any dealt in on our New York
exchanges. In other words, he believes the
speculative public will take their "flyers"
in mining stocks as regularly as they now do
in the stock market, and that seats in the
Mining Board may prove as valuable as those
in the regTilar Stock Exchange. Be that as
it may, it is certain that New York hereafter
is to be the great mining centre, not San
Francisco,

Foreseeing the growth of this interest, we
have paid some attention to mining matters
for nearly a year and a half. Our readers
will bear witness to the care we have taken
to warn them against doubtful properties.
We have really tried to teU the truth so far
as we could !find- out; in other words, to be
in the interest of the investors and not of
the mine owners. With the exception of
one other publication, this is the ouly paper
which criticises mine management and mine
operators. Those who have followed the
advice of this paper in abstaining from cer¬
tain mining stocks have saved their money.

And here it may be as well to say that in¬
vestments in mining property are not to be
commended. Nine persons in ten who in¬
vest in mining securities will lose their
money or suffer heavy losses. Our warning
would be, never buy a share in mining prop¬
erty. There is an inside ring which can
profit by marketing mines, but the buyer of
the so-called securities is always the victim.
It is true that people who have bought
Homestake, Ontario, Standard, have made
some money, but the end is not yet. In the
various deals with other stocks the first in
and the first out may have escaped with a
whole skin. But, as we have said, nine per¬
sons out of ten who have dealt with brokers
of mining boards have lost money. These,
however, suffer for the profit of other peo¬
ple and of the country. The other people
are the seUers of the mines, and the coun¬
try is benefitted when investors attempt to
develop the mineral regions of the nation.
The gold and silver production of to-day is
something less than;.|80,000,000 per annum.
It wiU not be many years before this pro¬





duction is quadrupled. We have a territory,
population and a railway system to utilize
our great mineral possessions, anii hence
the growth of interest in mining mat¬
ters and the necessity for some journal
which is pledged to tell the truth about
mining matters, without reference to its ad¬
vertising columns.





SOME DISTRICTS.

Strangers who have visited the city since
the 1st of May, are fairly amazed at the
amount of building and repairing which is
taking place all over the city. Every street
and avenue and all sections, bear witness to
the extraordinary activity in housebuilding
and altering. In some of the older sections,
it is as marked as in any of the newer
quarters of New York. Take Grand street,
from the Bowery to the East River. One
would scarcely look for improvement in a
business street surrounded by an East Side
population. But th<j general testimony is
that the sales in the stores in Grand street
have increased in value during the past two
years. The need of better and larger stores
is adniitted and as a consequence, on the
corners of several streets, old stores are
being pulled down, to be replaced by im¬
proved dwellings and stores. Here, as in
other parts of the city, the tendency to large
houses is made manifest. The ground floors
and cellars are occupied by stores and the
upper parts of the dwelling are rented out
in flats.

But another very busy district is that west
of Broadway and north of Canal street. In
this quarter of the city, the old Eighth ward
of New York, wiU be located many manu¬
facturers and not a few miscellaneous whole-
sa,le establishments. But all through Mer¬
cer, Greene, Wooster and Thompson stretch¬
ing back almost to Eighth avenue, will be
found evidences of an impending change.
This was once a choice residence portion of
New York, it was the home of the well-to-do
middle class ; but wheh they became rich
and moved further up town, a poorer class
of tenants occupied the houses and some of
the streets, like Mercer and Greene, became
noted for the number of questionable houses
they contained. But commerce is the great
extinguisher' of depraved sections of this
city, as is shown by the history of Leonard,
Church and Mercer streets, and the;same is
partially true of the old Five Points. But
the places that knew the viler portion of
our population in the Fifth and Eighth
wards, will soon kn- w them no more.





New York should take warning by Buf¬
falo. The grape sugar works are to be re¬
moved from that city to Des Moines, Iowa,
because the Common Council of Buffalo
fixed the water rates at a figure which would
cost the company $43,000 a year. For the
sake of having the works in Des Moines, the
Common Council have agreed to charge
nothing for the water. Coal is cheaper
there, as is also corn, large items in the man¬
ufacture of grape^ sugar. A large .starch
factory has also been removed from Buffalo
to Des Moines. It is not wise to make a
city too postly to live and do business in.
Great centres of trade should be free from
imposts and exactions, such for instance as
the scheme to tax brokers' sales here in
New York. Buffalo has a great future.
Any point where coal and iron can be
brought together the most economically, is
destined to be a ^eat mamifacturing point.