Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS^ GUIDE.





Vol. XXIV.





NEW YOKK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1879.





No. 001





Publislied Weekly by

€bt%m[^shk%tcox'h%5Socmtm\,

TERMS.

ONE YEAR, in advance....SIO.OO.

Couiiuunications should be addres.sed to

C.   W.   SAVEET,

Nos. 345 and 347 Broadway





POINTS   TO  BE REMEMBERED.
Ill discussing the present financial situation it
will be well to bear the following points in mind :

1.  That there is a steady increase in the gen¬
eral bu.'jiness of the country.

2.  That large quantities of gold and .silver are
coining from Europe,

S. That the banks are rapidly issuing more
currency.

4.  That the government is gradually putting
iuto circulation its silver certificates, its gold,
and we will soon see the standard silver dollars
iu general circulation.    And this means—

1.  Increased activity and the growth of a spec¬
ulative fever in all branches of business.

2.  A gradual rise in prices, first in stocks and
then extending to all kinds of merchandize, and,
linally, real estate will feel the impetus.

5.  A gradual enhancement in value of all ex¬
portable articles will in time make the exports
less and the imports greater, and the end of all
this will he¬
ist. A dangerously inflated condition  of the

currency, leading to high prices and speculation
in all departments of trade.

2d. An enhancement in values of all exporta¬
ble articles, so as to decrease the quantities of
merchandize we send abroad and the increase of
the price of all imported articles.

3d. A feverish and unwholesome speculation,
ending finally in a crash.

Of course, Congress may change this pro¬
gramme. If it was decided to withdraw all bills,
both greenbacks aud those issued by the national
banks below ten dollars, and let the vacuum be
liled by gold and silver, and at the same time
something was done to prevent the unwholesome
emission of more paper currency, there would be
il pause in the speculative fever and whatever
rise in prices there might be would be based upon
a gradual and wholesome appreciation of values.
The real trouble with us is that we have'too much
currency. We started last January with nearly
a thousand million of paper, gold and silver.
To-day we cannot have less than twelve hundred
thousand, counting all the gold, silver, paper
and fractional currency now passing from baud
to hand. This is entirely in excess of the wants of
the country and must finally end in disaster, but
this trouble need not be apprehended for some
years yet.





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THE PROPOSED " ZOO."
And now, it seems. New York is to have a
great Zoological Garden, covering some thirty
acres, and rivalling the famous Jardin des Plants
of Paris and the Zoological Garden of London;
other features being added to make the scheme
Attractive and profitable.   The site is oh the Har¬





lem River, and the ground selected affords op¬
portunities for artistic development. This insti¬
tution will have an advantage over those of Lon¬
don or Paris in being in the line of the develop¬
ment of the city's growth. New York mast en¬
large in the direction of the Harlem River, and,
merely as a speculation, the purchase of thirty
acres for four hundred thousand dollars will
prove an immenselj' profitable one. It has been
predicted that New York will be the money cen¬
tre of the world; that the exchanges will come
here in time as naturally as they now go to Lon¬
don ; but whether this will ever take place or not,
it is very clear that this city promises to be the
great amusement centre of the woidd—a second
Paris, without the objectionable immorality of
the latter city. With its Coney Island, Long
Branch, and the projected .splendid improvements
at Rockawaj"-, New York will surpass any place
in the world for its salt water bathing resorts.
Staten Island, the Hudson River and the Sound
have literally thousands of beautiful places for
recreation during the summer months. Our
theatres are the largest and finest in the world;
our Central Park cannot be surpassed for its com¬
pleteness, and this Zoological Garden will, if the
scheme is carried out, bo worth millions of dol¬
lars yearly merely from the interest which will
attach to it by the visitors from abroad. As yet,
San Francisco is ahead of us in being possessed
of the splendid Palace Hotel, with its wonderful
interior court-yard, but the great hotel of New
York is yet to be erected. Some day the natural
advantages of the hills overlooking the Harlem
River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek will be taken
advantage of, and the Richmond Hill, of London,
will be surpassed by a dozen places in the vicinity
of the metropolis. He who secures a reasonable
plot of ground witliin the charmed circle of this
evergrowing city will leave a sure fortune to his
descendants.





ABOUT ERIE.
It seems to bo pretty well settled that the Erie
Railroad Company has practically passed under
control of the Vanderbilts. In the eagerness of the
stock speculators to realize money out of this
news, the public has failed to imdorstand the re¬
sult of this change of the direction in the Erie
road. No doubt the Vanderbilts will make the Erie
property a better one for the stockholdere. Tho
interest on the bonded debt will be promptly paid
and perhaps in time even the preferred stock may
have a value from a dividend point of view. But
the community is destined to suffer. We may
expect an increase of rates, especially of the local
rates, on the Erie road, and the milk business will
be subject to the same e.xactions in New Jereey
that are imposed upon it on the Harlem road, in
Westchester, Putnam aud Dutchess counties, in
New York. The Vanderbilts care nothing for
local trade, except to find out how much it will
stand in the way of taxation. People, however,
are in such a hurry to make money ; times are so
buoyant; speculators in Erie areso jubilant ; that
this great artery will pass under Vanderbilt's con
trol without any protest from the business public.
And yet it will be a sore blow to the commercial
prosperity of New York. Erie, like the Central,
it \viU be feittembered, is soon to become » Bos¬





ton as well as a New York road. Its right of way
through the Hoosac tunnel will enable it to supply
New England with coal and other merchandize.
The old Erie managements, however dishonest
they may have been, as affecting the stock¬
holders, were always popular on the line of the
road. Even Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, bad as
they were supposed to be, when they ruled Erie,
were yet very popular with the local dealers.
The road itself was kept in good condition, and a
liberal policy was adopted towards all who car¬
ried freight on the road. This will now all be
reversed. The Central road is unpopular from
Buffalo down to the Harlem Bridge. There is
not a pereon who does business with it, excejjt a
few favored friends of the Vanderbilts, who do
not condemn the management of tho road as
being grasping and illiberal. Intere.stcd a.s wo
are in New York real estate, we cannot reganl it
as a happy omen that all the avenues to other parts
of the country, nnd especially the West, should
be under the control of one family who are dis¬
tinguished above all things for caring more for
their own interests than for those of the public.





A NEW STOCK EXCHANGE.

The increasing interest iu the stock market has
led to the organization of an Open Board of
Brokers, to have four sessions a day, extending
from nine to five o'clock; the rules of which will
permit the selling of five aud ten shares of stock.
There is some talk of renting the large hall of
the new Real Estate Exchange in the old Post
Office building for the use of this new Board. vVe
are promised a repetition of the extraordinary
excitement which prevailed during paper money
times from 1863 to bSftS, when there were after¬
noon and night sessions of stock operators at the
Fifth Avenue Hotel.

Americans never do anything bj'halves. Mr.
E. C. Stedman, who fms recently returned from
Europe, says there is no such Stock Board as
that of New York in either Paris or London. The
lioume is a very quiet and decorous place com¬
pared with our Exchange, and while th** London
money market represents an enormous amount
of transactions, it is for small sums antl for a
great variety of enterprises. There is no such
feverish activity as with us, and the method of
transacting business is such as to put a limit to
operations. It takes a couple of daj's and a great
deal of red tape for instance to have five shares of
EngUsh consols transferred from one pereon to
another, but here everything i.s dono with little
waste of time. At present the E.xchange here is
not large enough for the number of eager opera¬
tors that throng its floor. Wc want a much
larger building and a finer one, architectuniUy,
and if the regular Board were wise it would per¬
mit dealings in a smaller number of shares. The
great poptdarity of the " bucket shops " shows
that there is a demaud for a stock-dealing insti¬
tution among a wide circle of people of small
means. The gambling instinct is not by any
means confined to the rich. Perhaps we are not
quite justified in calling stock operations gamb¬
ling. Undoubtedly the speculative spirit runs
into mere betting on a hazard; but still dealing in
securities is in itself entirely legitimate, and there
can be no moral objection to si person buj-jng rt