Real Estate Record

ANIJ    BUILDERS'    GUIDE.
Vol. XIL                    NEW YOKK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1873.                        No. 284





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All communications should be addressed to

Whiting Building, .345 and 347 Broadway.





THE ENLAKGED POWERS OE NOTARIES
PUBLIC.





whose acts are to affect the records in his
charge, and it would be well, if by some fur¬
ther enactment, he shotild be clothed with
power to enforce such knowledge.





THE CENTENNIAL BUILDING.





In view of the interests confided to the charge
of the Register of the county, we cannot but
commend the jealous care which prompted
his action in the case lately before the Supreme
Court on an application for a mandamus to
compel him to record an assignment of mort¬
gage. The question arose out of the construc¬
tion of Section 1 of chapter 807 of the laws of
1873, which provides as follows:

Any notary ptiblic appointed for the coun¬
ties of Kings, Queens, Richmond, Westchester,
Rockland, and tor the city aud couuty of New
York, upon filing a certified copy of his ap¬
pointment, with his autograph signature, in
the Clerk's oflice of anj^ other of said counties,
is hereby authorized to exercise all the func¬
tions of his office in such other of said counties
with the same efl'ect as he now possesses by
law in the county for which he is appointed.

An assignment of mortgage was duly exe¬
cuted and acknowledged before a notary of
Kings county, exercising his functions AA'ithin
the limits of New York, after previous com¬
pliance Tvith the prescriptions of the Statute.
The Register refused to accept the acknowl¬
edgment, having no official knowledge of the
authority of the notary. To compel his ac¬
ceptance as well as to settle his duty in the
matter the issue was raised, and by a decision
of Judge Davis, lately rendered, it has been
determined that it was the duty of the Regis¬
ter to record the assignment, "while at the same
time the Court declared that the question being
new and of importance, the Register was jus¬
tified in requiring it to be brought before the
Courts.

Under this decision the Register is exoner¬
ated from a responsibility iu a manner hardly
satisfactory. The correctness of the decision
cannot be questioned, neither can the conven¬
ience resulting from the exercise of the nota¬
ries' functions under the Statute be disputed.
We have, however, recently had occasion to
remark tipon the necessities that exist for
throwing safeguards around the duties of the
Register to insure the protection of property
and for the defense of the records relating
thereto, and we cannot but conceive that un¬
der the Statute as framed, another loophole is
offered for fraud. The general idea of the
Register is right. He should have some offl-
fcial knowledge of tlie authority of individuals





There appears to be considerable anxiety in
some quarters as to the final selection shortly
to be made of the plan for the great Centen¬
nial Exhibition building in Philadelphia.   "VVe
must acknowledge frankly that we share this
anxiety, and fear that there is not sufficient
architectural calibre in the committee charged
with the decision to secure for us the building
this country and litis Republic arc entitled to.
It should be considered at the outset that with
the ample experiences of London, Paris, and
Vienna before us, the civilized world will look
to this country to surpass them all; first, in
point of architecture; second, in the charac'
ter of the exhibition itself.   As to the latter
feature there is plentj'^ of time left to secure
supremacy.   But as to the edifice itself and
its outlying or rather supporting buildings, it
is high time to speak now, as from the ten
plans—some say selected with a good deal of
partialitj' to Philadelphia, but no matter as to
that—a second and   final   selection will be
made in a very few weeks.   Once made, and
the contracts awarded, it will be too late (if
anything is wrong) to suggest   the   proper
remedies.   Now, therefore, is the time to im¬
press upon the eminent gentlemen charged
with making the final decision to engage the
best experts in the country to assist them in
the' important task intrusted to their care.
The honor will be theirs, whoever may be
added, and the reputation of the country is at
stake if the least error is made in the decision.
Let, by all means, men like Leopold Eidiitz
or James Renwick, who stand at the head of
Americau architects, be selected as honorary
members of the committee on architecture and
building; then let their voices be potential in
the deliberations of the committee, and, our
word for it, the countiy will have no reason
to be ashamed of the building where the great
Centennial Jubilee will be ushered.





ever on the reports about cholera and cholera
districts which a prominent morning newspa¬
per is so anxious to place before sensible peo¬
ple. The truth is, there is no cholera, no dis¬
ease whatever in New York. The mortality
is even smaller than usual at this season of
the year. How a journal, professing to have
the ear of business men and capitalists, can
find its profit in the spreading of such reports
ctm only be accounted for by that strange fas¬
cination for romancing, which appears to be
the main-spring of its support. What we de¬
sire to say to our friends in the country is to
place no reliance whatever on these cholera
reports. They are very finely, very nicely
written, every comma in its place, and every
semicolon where it ought to be, but they lack
one great feature, and that is—truth. , The
city of New York is healthy, perfectly so ; its
streets and avenues are cleaner than they have
been for years ; dirt like Tammany has gone
" where the woodbine twineth;" and though
there are some of the old scliool whose eyes
are so befogged that they still see dirt every¬
where, we assure Southern, Western, and
Eastern merchants that the brooms of the
Reform Government have swept pretty cleanly
so far, and New York to-day is in splendid
order and condition for a rousing Fall trade.





THE EASTERN BOULEVARD.





NEW YORK READY FOR THE FALL TRADE.

With the opening of the busy season it is a
subject of general congratulation to be able to
say that at no time during the past twenty
years has the city of New York been in a
healthier condition than it is to-day; and the
metropolis is not only free from all sort of
epidemic, but the prospects of its remaining
so have never been better than they are at
this writing. We warn our friends in the
interior, therefore, to place no reliance what-





If there is any one thing specially desirable
to property owners on the East Side, it is the
commencement and speedy completion of the
Eastern Boulevard.   So much has been said
and done in the way of similar improvements
for the westerly side of the city that property
on the banks of the East and Harlem rivers
has perforce been kept in retirement  with
scarce any one to urge its claims even to par¬
tial improvement.   It is a matter for congrat¬
ulation, therefore, that Commissioner Van Nort
has bestirred himself and seems inclined to
immediately prosecute this much-needed im¬
provement.   There will be room for greater
congratulation when he shall have pushed it
to a successful issue.   The demands of travel
on the East Side are not satisfied Avith the
facilities afforded by the Second and Third
avenues.   A Boulevard for wagon travel, with
a road bed relieved from the hard pavements,
tending toward Harlem Bridge, has long been
needed and should   not   be   delayed.    The
great advantages resulting to property, which
requires but a morsel of encouragement to
give it life and thereby add to the attractions
of the city, need no argument; and the com¬
pletion of the Boulevard will go far toward
hastening those enterprises which are impera¬
tively necessary to reclaim the low lands above
Ninety-secoid Street from the tidal overfiows