AND   BUILDERSV GUIDE.





Vol. L] • ■





NEW YORK- SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1868.





[No. 16





PUBLTSKED WEEKLY BY

c; w: SWEET & 'do,,

EooAi B, AVOP.LD Building, No, 37 Park Eoav,
TEEMS, .
Six months, payable in advance................. $3 00

PEICE OP ADVEETISING,

1 square, ten lines, three months.......'..........$10 00

1 square, single insertion..........................   1 00

Special Notices, per line.,.:......................       20





ARCADIAN VILLAGES.

The simplicity of  a   "lovely Auburn," of
Avliich Goldsmith, so tenderly -wrote, has been
resuscitated even in this, our age, at tlie'\allage
of Vineland, New Jersey, -where a settlement
has been  formed upon the   most   primitive
principles of municipal virtue.    According to
newspaper accouuts, a phenomenal settlement
has recently been formed at this place, Avhich
attempts to emulate in virtue and surpass in
enterprise some of those unsophisticated vil¬
lages on the banks of the St. LaAvrence, Avhere
the  inhabitants live the peaceful liveg  of   a
community far removed from the vices, frivoli¬
ties, and ambitions of great capitals.     This
infant toAvn is not yet even in its teens, for
only eight years ago it Avas a barren wilderness.
At that period Mr. C. K. Landis bought some
forty-eight   square  miles of pine Avildemess,
and proceeded immediately to locate a colony
upon it under peculiar, though beneficial re¬
strictions, some of which are as folloAvs:    No
settler may purchase more than tAventy acres of
land, though, generaUy, not more than from
five to ten is OAvned by one man, and all Avho
purchase are obliged by contract to erect a
house Avithin a year before receiving the title
deeds.   This prevents speculation and increases
population.    One of the regulations prohibits
the erection of fences, and enjoins that each
house be placed twenty-five feet back from the
road, the side-Avalk of which is to be grassed
and lined Avith trees.    Each dAveUing is em¬
bowered in orchards of fruit trees, Avhich rise
amidst gardens of vegetables, small fruits, and
flowers.      In fact, among this community of
eleven thousand people, there is no great afflu¬
ence nor any squalid poverty, everybody being
comfortably off, because no bad influences are
allowed to operate, in the Avay of rum shops,
&c.    To carry out these ideas for any great
length of  time,  among a large   population,
would be Utopian; but yet the idea in the
main points is good, and deserving of imi¬
tation.    For example, if some of those gentle¬
men who have recently invested largely in
suburban properigr, were to enforce compulsory
improvements before a_ delivery of the title
deeds, less land would be held on mere specula¬
tion, and more settled on, thereby conductog
to the general value of the property.     This





idea has certainly been partially adopted in
some of the recent large sales in New Jersey,
where land was offered at a nominal value,
provided the purchaser would erect thereon,
before the year, a -villa, the value of which was
not to be less than $3,000 ; but then there were
no laws insuring a freedom from nuisances of
aU sorts. One good feature, also, is the pro¬
hibition of fences, Avhich are at best but ex¬
pensive nuisances, that detract from the beauty.
of the landscape ; and as domestic animals, such
as cows, poultry, and pigs, should be penned up
and not allowed to roam at large, they are not
by any means indispensable.

This novel idea in the location of settle¬
ments might be carried out to great advantage
in many of those suburban toAvns Avhich are
being laid out all around the city, by merely
inserting clauses in the title deeds simUar to
these given at Vineland. Should there be a
bridge over the East or North lliver, it would
be easily possible to locate advantageously a
square mile of territory upon the railroads
over such a bridge on the same principle as Vine-
land, Avhere every advantage of a respectable
society and the absence of a city's evils Avould
be insured. A general aiTangement of this
kind Avould prevent many of tho evils that
arise from locating toAvns in unhealthy locali¬
ties, such as one may see at the back of Hobo¬
ken and Jersey City, where houses have been
erected in a reeking swamp, Avhere they should
never have existed had there been some fore¬
cast shoAvn by those who originated and laid
out their sites. The time is coming when
sanitary science will be brought into play in
the foundation of towns and cities.





The Corportion Counsel has been requested
to give his opinion as to the legality of the acts
of the Board of Councilmen during the year
18C8,

It is generally regarded as a plain principle
of law, that an act is constitutional until it is
declared unconstitutional, and so it must be in
this case. To declare the acts passed since
January 1, 1868, by the Common Council
illegal, would involve the city, as Avell as indi-
Ariduals, in unnecessary litigation; and surely we
have had enough of expense arising from this
and similar legislative " muddles." It is a sad
commentary upon our system of government and
our laws, and expensive, too, Avithal. It is na-
tiu-aUy, though it may be impertinently, asked,
when Avill we have an end of this special legis¬
lation, which gives rise to so much question
about the right, and so much litigation and ex¬
pense ? It would seem that our legitimate ex¬
pense were heavy enough Avithout ha-ving to
bear the expense of determining Avhether every
other law on our statute book affecting the





government of oitr city is constitutioxial or
not.

If the principle on which this act extending
the terms of office of the Councilmen is deem,
ed unconstitutional, viz., that every act of the
Legislature should be expressed in its title,
and this was surreptitiou.sly inserted in the
Tax Le-vy, the Board of the previous year must
also have been an unconstitutional one, inas¬
much as it was created and existed under a
provision of a section of the LcA-y for that year.
Not until the people elect men to the Legisla¬
ture Avho can have some knoAvledge of the
effect of laws, and how to frame them so as to
avoid constitutional questions arising out of
them, and not until some deference and obe¬
dience to a Constitution and LaAV can be ob¬
served by our Legislators, can Ave expect to
see such a change as will secure to us immu¬
nity from such conflicting acts as these of
which this Councilmanic muddle is a notable
in-stance,    Verbum sapienti sujficit, speramus.





BUY A LOT.

It is pleasant to notice that the same impulse
(or instinct, is it ?) Avhich induces the wealthy to
invest their savings in real estate, is also opera¬
ting among the comparatively poor, who, by
means of cooperative land associations and
other agencies, are getting possession of lots
and houses upon which to found permanent
homes. The horse-car railAvay system, by
Avhich population can spread over tolerably
Avide areas cheaply and Avith expedition, haa
put cheap land within reach of the poor; and
the latter have not been slow to avail them¬
selves of the chance to secure at least the be¬
ginning of a home.

This is at once a conservative and reforming
tendency in the life of our large cities. So long
as the poor voter is homeless, or a mere tenant,
he cares but little for the kind of municipal
officers he selects; but, once he has a stake in
the community, he avUI see to it that he
does not vote for Councilmen or Legislators
Avho Avill raise his taxes or otherwise rob him.
A home of his OAvn gives a man self-respect,
and adds to his value in the household, society,
and the nation.

Employers should foster this disposition
among their Avorkmen to secure homes of their
own. A mechanic Avill not vote against the
interests of capital when he is himself a capi¬
talist in a small Avay. Hence, encouragement
should be given to the ncAv toAATis which far-
seeing real estatfe operators are locating aU
around New York city. As oxir railway sys¬
tem extends, population will be throAvn out
to greater^ and still greater distances ; and an
investor can scarcely miss it who invests his
fcAV hundreds of dollars anywhere Avithin
twenty miles of our City HaU.





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