AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE





Vol. XL





NEW YORK, SATUEDAY, JANUARY 25, 1873.





No. 254.





Published Weeklu bv

THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION.

TERMS.

One year, in advance......................§6 00

Ail communications should be addressed to

C.   "W".   SAVISET.

■7 AND 9 WARBEN STRKKT.





No receipt for money due the Real Estate Record
will be acknowledged unless signed by one oE our regular
collectors». Henry D. S.mitfi or Tho.mas P. Cumjiings.
AU bills for collection will be sent from tlie office on a regii-
larly printed form.





From ail appearances Gomptroller Green will
hâve to be sacrificed this winter. "While the
community at large hâve every confidence in
his integrity, the politicians do not like him, and
the contractors,—ail in fact who work for the
city, —detef t him. His want o f popularity among
the city plunderers is explicable upon a theory
honorable to him; not so the dissatisfaction
which is expressed by good citizens at his Avant
of promptness in business, his needless atten¬
tions to detaU, and his disposition to grasp
power which he cannot make use of. He is re-
garded in some quarters as a real stumbling-
block to the progress of city improvements.
We cannot but sympathize with Mr. Green
He has been no respecter of persons in dealiug
with the city creditors, and he scrutinizes the
bills of powerful journals quite ps closely as
he would those of the humblest contractor.
Hence the attacks upon him in the press.

There is no question among the various
cliques which are manipulating the proposed
charters as to Mr. Green. They ail agrée that
he must get out of the Avay and that some more
pliable oflacial shall be put in his place. Of
course he will- be promoted to some apparently
higher position, but the main point is to hâve
the money department of the city in accommo-
dating hands.





ticle, after depicting the truly sorrowful posi¬
tion of American clergymen, Avith their ' ' sen-
sitiveness, culture, and refinement," and their
average income of $G00 a year, sets forth how
in the end they are ' ' thrown into some ho.?pi-
tal or asylum as ' incurables.' " It then shows
hoAV by help of this neAV eleemosynary associa¬
tion the clergyman is to approach the back
area door of the insurance palace, with his bas¬
ket of broken victuals in the shape of contri¬
butions from his vestry or church, on the
Avell-known plan of Annuity Insurance, and is
there to wait meekly Avhile the lordly porter or
the magnificent clerks add to his stock of cold
victuals an insurance policy " at clergymen's
rates."

Is it not time that the 65,000 American
clerg}'- gave forth an unanimous protest against
this whole beggarly system of rémunération
for their serA'ices. They either do a fair
day's work every day, or they 'do not. If
they do, let them stoutly claim the fair day's
Avages; if they do not, let them voluntarily
folloAV their brethren of Japan into other pur¬
suits.





CEKTAm highly respectable and well-mean-
ing gentlemen are just now trying tb strength-
-en and refurbish the tottermg édifice of Life
Insurance, by " daubing it Avith untempered
mortar." For instance, a lamentable cry was
put forth lately by the New York 2\mes, to the
effect that something must be done to enable
clergymen to obtain a reliable insurance on
their lives; and an association, heaued by
James Brown and his son-in-law, Howard Pot¬
ier, was highly comniended, which styles it¬
self the "Association for Promoting Life In-
suramce Among Gte.rgSfmen."   The Tinm ax-





The City of London, which obtained its char¬
ter about one thousand years before New York,
became gradually surrounded by seven semi-
cities called the Tower Hamlets, Finsbury, Saint
Mary le Bone, Westminster, Lambeth, South-
wark and Greenwich ; and each of thèse again
was subdivided into parishes, with each a local
petty parliament knoAvn as the ''Vestry Board,"
with control of police, paving, grading, light-
ing, seAverage, etc. This system was partly bro¬
ken up by Sir. Eobert Peel fifty years ago.
The first necessary expense under the new ré¬
gime wàs $100,000,000 for a neAV System of
ECAvers, which would ail tave been saved by
proper foresight in the original laying out of
the city.

A striking proof that those who control the
planning of the public works of Ncav York and
its suburbs hâve been short-sightedis seen in the
following facts concerning Morrisania. This is
the smallest town in Westchester County, and
interlaces the lands of the city. Containing
only 2,549 acres, it has been within the last
twenty-two years eut up into nineteen separate
districts, each mapped out to make the great¬
est possible number of square building lots,
Avithout any référence to the neighboring dis¬
tricts, and entirely at variance with the map of
the city. And yet instead of seeking, even at
this late day, to rectify this evil by annexation
to New York, and adaptation of its thorough-
far€s to those of the Metropolis, the political
managers of that région are asking leave to ex-
tend their limits with over 3,000 houses to be
put up in éxactly the wrong places in their lit¬
tle towja of MorriBaiiia.





OEGANS IN CHUECHES.
TnE question as to the best position for
organs in churches, both as to sight and sound,
is at présent attracting considérable attention
abroad, and various views are entertained by
those most interested in the discussion. Some
maintain that the most appropriate place for
the organ is the east end, where the rest of the
sei-vice is conducted, others that the west end
is préférable : some again are for enclosing it
in a smdU chamber, so as to compress and inten-
sify the sound, while others denounce this idea,
and assei-t that it should be made as free as
possible from ail enclosures, so as to permit the
full transmission of sonnd.

Practically there seems to be no good reason
why the organ should not be   appropriately
placed in the west or the east, provided the
choir and the organ are located together.    In
some churches, where the choir is placed in the
chancel and leads the congrégation, it seems
advisable that the instrument should be placed
near it, for, with the choir in the chancel and
the instrumental music in the west end, they
can never be heard immediately together by
those seated in the nave, at least in churches of
large dimensions.    But where organ and choir
are placed together in the west end, as they are
in many churches. there appears no reasonable
objection to such an arrangement, for it is cer-
taialy capable of lich architectural treatment,
and it is not at ail necessary to face music to be
in a position to hear it thoroughly.    Indeed the
effect of music is rather heightened when the
source of it is hidden from view.    An instance
occurs to the writer, in a church at Rome, lo¬
cated  on the Piazza di Spagna, which is—or
was some years ago—renowned for the singing
of the nuns cfficiatirg there.    Being, by their
tenets, kept invisible from the ijublic eye, the
effect during the service, when thèse unseen
daughters of   melody joined   their. voices in
solemn and majestic chorus, Avas thiilling be¬
yond description.

But there are other points of perhaps even
greater importance than the question of loca-
ting an organ east or west, and that is to so
treat it, wherever located, as best to insure
perfect sound and sightliness. To insure
thèse, a veiy few common-sense rules seem
necessary to be observed. Ist. The instrument
should never be shut up in any nairow chamber
or alcôve, so as to stifle its sound. 2d. It
should not be placed against any window, but
hâve a soUd wall in rear of it, and be so placed
hat ample space is allowed to go ail around it,
for the purposes of tuning, etc. 3d. It should
be placed much nearer the floor than the roof,
if possible not more than eight or nine feet from
the floor. 4th. The utmost care must be taken
to protect the instrument from damp and
chaaag'eB of température.    To this may be added