AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE.





Vol. XL





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1873.





No. 257.





Publis/ied Weeklu bv

TlIE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION.

TBllMS.

One year, in advance......................ÇC 00.

AU communications should be addressed to

7 ANI) 9 WARRKN' STRKBT.





No receipt for rooney due the Rkat. Bst.'^te Rkcord
will be acknowledged nnless signed by one of onr regular
collectors. Henry D. s.mitu or Thomas F. Cummings.
AU bills for collection will be sent from tbe office on a regu-
larly nrinted form.





SPK.CIAL Notice.

Beautifullt designed Majolica Tiles hâve recently
been introduced as a covering for counter-tops. and the idea
is becoming very popular. It orighiated with the firm of
Measrs. Anderson. Merchant & Co., successors of S. L.
Merchant & Co., of this city. The same firm hâve now on
exhibition at their store, No. 244 Pearl street, a great va-
riety of the most artistic, beautifnlly designed, and gor-
geously decorated, Encaustic and Majolica Tiles, the pro¬
duction of the ilessrs. Maw & Co., of London, for whom
the above firm .are the Agents for the United States.

The tile layersin the employ of the above firm are ail
ejperts from England, and alfwork done by them is guar¬
anteed to give perfect satisfaction.

ISncaustic Tiles are also getting to be very much iised in
conjunction with plain Tiles, for flooring .aiid also for mu¬
ral décorations, and the Majolica Tiles are extremely rich
for Hearths, Mivntels panelling, and for inside and outside
wall décorations, they cannot be surpassed.





One by one the parks—the breathing places of
the city—are absorbed for ' ' absolutely neces¬
sary " objects by absolutely irrésistible gentle¬
men and cliques and companies of gentlemen.
The latest project of this sort is to dévote a
large pièce of Réservoir square to the use of
the Seventh Régiment for an armory. The
building now used by this régiment for that pur-
pose is over Tompkins Market near Cooper Insti¬
tute, and does not give them what they doubt¬
less consider is their due, the most élégant drUl
room in the city. But some other place can be
found for them without disfiguring a park that
has been lately remodeled at great expense. It
will seem to many in poor taste to put ar¬
mories in places whose legitimate, normal use is
for récréation and récupération : to unnecessar-
ily mingle "' war's loud alarums "—the rattling
drum, the shrill fife, the click of muskets, the
measured tread of armed men, with the prattle
aritl gambols of children • by day, and young
levers by moon-light. The fact is that the
Seventh think that the broad, carefully paved
walks of the Réservoir Square would be a
sweet place to air their beautiful uniforms.
They complain that they hâve no place now
where they can practice the ' ' double-quick "
to advantage. They hâve the same opportuni-
ties as other régiments. They are rich enough
collectively, if they w;int Spécial privilèges
to buy them for themselves. Another objec¬
tion to this invasion of the square i-", that whén





the spell is once broken by placing one building
in a park, a hundred good reasons axe soon
forthcoming for putting others there.





Prople who abuse the Tweed Charter of
1870, should remember that it furnished the
club which beat out the bratns of the Ring.
Its prime merit was that it fixed responsibihty.
Under previous charters the Ring worked in
the dark; they managed mayors, boards of
aldermen and supervisors, commissioners, and
plundered vicariously ; Sweeney held no office,
and Tweed was only one of a board of twelve
supervisors ; but the 1870 charter by its board
of audit provision, most unwisely for them, made
Sweeney, Tweed, Hall and ConnoUy peison-
ally responsible for every dollar they spent.
When the exposuve came there was no scape-
goat possible ; they had to bear the whole
brunt of the public indignation. Under previ¬
ous charters—the ring in the background —
the lightnings of popular wrath would hâve
fallen upon some wretched tool of an alder¬
man or superviser ; but Sweeney, Tweed &
Co., though discredited, would not hâve beeu
ruined as they now are.

The moral of this is, that in any charter
frameil in Albany we must hâve responsibiliby ;
in no other way can we hâve an assurance of
honest local government. The Tweed Charter
was a very defective instrument in many par¬
ticulars, but in so far as it fixes responsibility
it was well framed.





HINTS FOE CHAETER MAKEES.

1.  Elevate the office of Mayor by giving that
officiai $50,000 per annum, and the finest house
in New York for his résidence.

2.   Make him the pivot of the whole city gov¬
ernment, and let him hâve a cabinet—the heads
of the various city departments—who shall be
responsible to him.

3.   Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the lower
part of Westchester, should be Consolidated
with New York, and the Common Council
should be chosen by some scheme of propor-
tional représentation.

4.   The tax-payers should be required to audit
ail the bills presented to the municipality.
They should hâve no power of initiation, nor
any veto upon the will of the community ; but
they ought to be allowed to see and report
upon .ail expenditures of money, to prevent
waste and the payment of fraudulent claims.

5.  Fee offices should not be abolished, but
the compensation should be regulated, to prej-
vent excessive payments.

6.  Civil service reform should be attended to
at once. Ail appointments of minor officiais
shotild be for life, and ail boys and girle who





had passed through the Free Collège or Normal
School, should be eligible for thèse positions.

7. Power should be given the municipality
to construct markets, rapid transit roads, and
bridges—to make New York the Impérial city
it is destined to be. The city should also as¬
sume sovereignty over ail the street cars, which
should be run by the city for its citizens,
without référence to cost. Ail conductors and
car-drivers, as well as firemen, shoidd be po¬
iicemen. The companies should also be run by
the city government, for the benefit of the
citizens.

This wiU do for one day.





THE REGISTEB'S OFFICE.
Passing down Chatham street and approach-
ing City, HaU, one cannot help being struck by
an old-fashioned dismal structure, looking in
ita base Uke an Egyptian mummy-palace,
topped by the frail walls and narrow Windows
of a " first-class " New York six-story tenement
house. This old-looldng, superannuated and
miserably patched up building is strangely con-
trasted by its magnificent surroundings,—the
Court House, the new Post Office, and the
Staats Zeitung's Office,—is caUed the HaU of
Records, or Register's Office. It contains an
immense number of books and papers, officiai
duplicates and originals of documents, whose
value can scarcely be calculated, and whose
destruction would be a dire calamity to the
City and County—nay, even to the State of
New York—as the business relations of our me¬
tropolis are so extended that they spread out
over our whole State like a network, afEecting
the interest and property of many thousands
of citizens livir^ in this city and the iuterior
of the State. It seems, therefore, almost in-
credible, how, under the very eyes of a miUion
of people, and especiaUy under the sharp eyes
of the members of the bar, the Register's Office
could hâve faUen into such terrible neglect as
we found it on a tour of inspection a year ago ;
but if we look back upon the shameful trans¬
actions in regard to the New Court House dur¬
ing the blooming period of the Ring dynasty.
we may weU undérstand that the HaU of Rec¬
ords was not exempt from the gênerai system
of wholesale plunder, déprédation, and dégra¬
dation, by which the means appropriated for
public purposes disappeared in the pockets of
officiai robbers. TVe scarcely exaggerate when
we say, that for years the Hall of Recorda was
nothing more than a dark, dirty and over-
crowded hole, not adapted for any employée to
stay in, nor for business men to do their work
properly ; and, we only do an act of justice,
when we now point to the many salutary
changes which hâve taken placcsince the great
reform movement of 1871 swept the principal
ringleaders   of   mighty  Tammany  overboard,