Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS^ GUIDE.





YoL. XXYI.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, OCTOBEE 2, 18S0.





No. 655





Published Weekly by

'€^t 'Mml Estate %mx^ %BBomixan.

TERMS.
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C.   W.   SWEET,

No. 137 Broadway

We receive frequent comj)laints from our
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annoyed by outsiders anxious to glean in¬
formation from these cokimns, and who in¬
sist upon occupying temporary desl^-room
in their ofifices wlien looking over their files.
Of course these complaints, Avliile implying
a well deserved coinpliment to The Record,
are dulj-- appreciated by us, and we should be
glad to tell sucli outsiders that newspapers
when worth reading at all, are worth buy¬
ing. As it is impossible for us to interview
all tliese borrowers, we beg oxn- subscribers
A\'lienever annoyed again by them, to inform
such intruders, that our i^ublication office
is at 137 Broadway, and that the price of
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able iu advance.

ABOUT INVESTMENTS.

The general rise in values, and the profit¬
ableness of all business is adding to the bank
accovmt.s of neariy every jjerson engaged in
professional or commercial life. Except for
four months of the fall of 1880, and during
perhaps two or three times in the paper
money era, there are few periods in the liis-
tory of the country which can compare with
the iDresent in the profits realized by all who
deal in securities, or who manufacture and
sell consumable goods.

With every one or nearly every one mak¬
ing moneyj the question arises, how will the
surplus be reinvested ?

A good deal of it will naturally be used in
enlarging the business undertakings in
which the profits were made. A certain
portion also will be available for new and
tempting industrial enterprises. Then again,
family expenses will increase, as tlie stand¬
ard of home and personal comforts v.-ill be
higher. But, making allowances for these
new outlets for the employment of surplus
funds, there will remain a large sum to be
invested in the securities now on the market.
ia Which of these will be the favorite specu¬
lation during the coming season?

Last fall the mania was for the low-priced
railroad properties, and in many cases the
profits in these was extraordinarily large.
The condition of affairs was such that it did
not take .much courage to buy any cheap





shares. They had been unduly depressed;
the business of the country, especially the
West, was at low ebb ; they were wanted as
links between old roads or continuations
into new regions, and hence the extraordi¬
nary rise in Iron Mountain, Kansas Pacific,
Kansas & Texas, San Francisco, and other
more obscure jiroperties. No doubt there is
money yet in many low priced stocks, es¬
pecially those in our mineral regions west of
the Missouri, where the tides of emigration
are taking up new lands, and new crops
have to be moved or new mines opened.
But to speculate wisely in these outlying-
properties requires special knowledge, wliich
the general public cannot procure. Hence
it follows that the ordinary investor is forced
to choose between the various well-known
securities which are dealt in on our New
York Stock Exchange, and it is to the high
not the low jjriced that he will be attracted.

Governments barely yield 3K per cent,
interest ; gilt edged bonds not more than
43a to .5. Money is easy in Europe, and secu¬
rities Avhich pay 8 per cent, there, are con¬
sidered desirable above par. We shall never
again here, at the East, see the very high
prices for money which obtained before the
civil war. A 5 per cent, investment,
whether in land or railway shares, will be
considered as being worth par. Hence it
follows that all securities which are certain
to pay more than 5 per cent., are very sure
in time to command more than par. New
York Central pays 8 i>er cent, and could pay
11. It is not dear, therefore, at .f 130. Lake
Shore earns 12 jier cent, per annum, and
pays 8. It is very cheap at 1107. Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy earns 15 per cent. It
ought to command .floO. Morris & Essex is
better than most of the V.onds pn tho market,
and would not be dear at .$130, although it
pays but 7 per cent., and so through the en¬
tire list. We believe that there is still a
large margin for a permanent rise in all the
first-class investments now dealt in on the
New Y'ork Stock Exchange.

What if there should be railroad wars?
They never last long in prosperous times,
when the roads have all they can do. It is
only in the event of poor crops and competi¬
tion that the cutting of rates is indulged in.
Nor is there any fear of the building of rival
roads. True, the coming four years prom¬
ises to see a revival of railway building iii
this country upon a gigantic scale. Another
great railway mania is on the tapis. Thcje
will, in time, be unnecessary roads built.
But the trunk lines are being amalgamated
and systematized, and in the course of time
each will liave its own section of country
undisturbed. The consolidations which
have begxiii will continue until the roads be¬
come monopolies within their own region.





No state of permanent war can (jxi.st, and
hence we look for an increase of tlie liusi-
ness of the country that will give the roads
all they can do and add to the desirability of
investments in railway securities. No mat¬
ter if there is a panic on a small scale due to
dear money. Suppose we should liave one
or two bad harvests. We can now aft'ord
them. The country is increasing in popula¬
tion, in wealth, and in business so rapidly,
that all our railways, iivliether they are East
or West or North or South, are certain to
appreciate in value as the years roll by.

We argue then, that stocks are not too
high; that they cannot be called high until
they bring less than 5 per cent, upon the in
vestment. Eight i>er cent, stocks selling at
less than $120 are really very low, and there
is a margin of profit in nearly all the good
stocks which are to-day dealt in upon the
New York Stock Exchange.





THE HARLEM DISTRICT.

Taken from one end to another, probably
no less than 400 houses are being built to-day
in Harlem, and in this energetic work of im¬
provement, there are to be found not only
builders who erect houses to sell, but capi¬
talists who are building for investment. Mr.
Wm. B. Astor, for instance, is improving
One Hundred and Twenty-ninth and Thir¬
tieth streets, between Fifth and Sixth av¬
enues, with first-class four-story houses, and
Mr. E. S. Higgins is building several houses
on One Hundred and Twenty-fourth street,
between St. Nicholas and Eighth avenues,
and again several more on One Hundred and
Thirtieth street, between Fifth and Sixtli.

The greatest activity, of course, centres iu
the immediate vicinity of One Hundred and
Twenty-fifth street, where tlie soil is com¬
posed of sand and gravel, the very healthiest
soil to live on, and Avhere the stretch of
ponds of stagnant water that used to infest
the section more southward never reached
even in the past. In fact, One Hundredand
Twenty-fifth street should be the first
great retail street of tho future above Twen¬
ty-third street. Nowhere between these two
points can there be found so good a business
street, running from river to river, and
where, owing to tlie connecting links tha*
are being formed by means of the Eiglith
and Third avenues with the villages of what
was once Westchester County, but is now the
annexed district, a most thriving trade is
slowly centering already. There are now sev¬
eral stores in that street between Third and
Fourth avenues, and as far up as Madison
avenue, and again between Seventh and
Eighth, with more of them being continual¬
ly added.

The project to have a grand market iiome-