Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol, XXVIII





NEW YOKK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. 1«H1.





704





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:
ONE YEAR, In advance.....$6.00

Commimications should he addressed to

C. W. SWEET, UI Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager.





Architects in New York and Brooklyn,
say that very few plans for new houses are
now being considered. The high price of
labor and material has checked new build¬
ing enterprises. Capitalists prefer to wait
and see what luck the houses underway wiU
have, before giving out new contracts. But
then new building enterprises are rarely be¬
gun at this particular season. It is during
winter and spring that architects have most
work to do. In the mean time, there is a
great scarcity of houses to rent. Those
underway or ready for occupancy are gen¬
erally for sale. We think it a good time to
buy houses. There is no likelihood that la¬
bor or material will be any cheaper for tlie
next three years, indeed the vast increase to
our currency looks to higher prices for every
product of human hands. Should there be
an active demand for houses as seems not
unlikely, later on this fall, the architects
will have all the work they  can do next

winter and spring.

-------«------_

In our news columns will be found the
particulars of a large sale of New York
property to Jay Gould. That great railway
king is not so ostentatious in the private
houses he occupies, as his supposed rivals,
the Vanderbilts. But Mr Gould in his new
house, at the northeast corner of Fifth
avenue and Forty-seventh street, will have
much more spacious quarters than in his
more modest home across the street. The
artistic world will be glad to learn, that one
of Mr. Gould's new houses is to be devoted
to a picture gallery which will be quite
equal, if not superior, to any collection in
this country.





The rapid construction of D. O. Mills'
building on Broad street, excites the surprise
of all who note its progress from week to
week. It is now said the building will be
ready for occupancy by early spring. It
seems the work is going forward day and
night, a calcium light being brought into
play after darkness has set in. The experi¬
ment of working by night is said to have
proved highly successful. All the laborers
are not employed, but the ground is cleared,
brick, stone, iron and other material is all
got in readtuess for next day's work. Two
calcium lights on Broad street, and two on
Exchange place are made use of. The
work oh the new Produce Exchange is also
pushed forward during the night by the aid
of artificial illumination.

The-ability to work by night as well as
day out of doors, may lead to many impor¬
tant results.   It increases  the demand for





labor and is a great saving of capital, for
property can be made productive in half the
time if buildinjjj goes along during the night
as well as the day. While the immediate
result may be to temporarily increase the
price of labor the permanent effect will be
to the interest of the employers. It needs
no argument to show that when a vast and
costly structure can be ready for occupancy
within one instead of at the end of two
years, it will be to the advantage of all in¬
terested in the building, especially the
owners.





THE GENERAL MARKETS.

It begins to look as if the bulls were to
have their say about prices on the Stock Ex¬
change. The bears so far have had a good
long pull. The market has been a s,ale from
Decoration Day down to last Saturday, that
is to say, whoever kept short of the market
dm-ing all that period made money. The
general argument was that prices were too
high and that crops would be short. Well,
prices have come down from 15 to 25 points,
and it would seem that the full effect «)f the
poor crops had been discounted.

What thea are the present prospects ? The
bulls say with a good deal of force that their
time has come. A rising of the speculative
tide is now in order. Tney argue that rail¬
road earnings, the country through, were
never larger. Some few of the roads travers¬
ing the corn belt show the effects of the cut¬
ting of rates, but the mercantile and manu¬
facturing business of the country is so im¬
mense that the roads are making more
money on the whole than ever before in the
history of the country. The carriage of
merchandise and passengers was never
larger, and these are always the most trust¬
worthy supports of our railway system.
Then our imports of gold are continuous.
The bulls claim, with some show of reason,
that we have never imported gold without an
advance in prices following.

So far we have received about eleven
million dollars in gold, against seventeen
million gold for tLe same period last year.
The cotton bills have not yet come into
play, and it looks as if we may receive from
forty to fifty million before next spring.
This, with what we retain of buUion pro¬
duced in our own country, wiU make an
immense addition to our currency, without
counting the forty-six million of sUver cer¬
tificates issued, or the two hundred thou¬
sand dollars per month added to our bank
note circulation. When we remember that
every doUar received from abroad or from
our mines is the basis of four dollars in dis¬
counts, it is evident that an advance in
prices in everything is inevitable.

If our farmers have not so much wheat
and com, the prices they get are so much
better as to make up the deficiency. There
was a large surplus left over from last
year which would be available for this sea¬
son. Labor is employed and at such high
wages that the working classes have begun
to travel, which of course helps the price of





railway shares. There is no probability of
any such insane kiting of prices as occurred
last spring, but there is a reasonable pre¬
sumption that stocks not affected by the
crops will be held for higher figures. There
is another bull influence which also must be
kept in mind. Some of the mosi long-head¬
ed, enterprising and wealthy capitalists! of
the country have embarked in new railway
enterprises which they propose t9 see carried
through. These enterprises have had a set
back, but they will recover and be pushed to
completion. The spfculative spirit of the
country is by no means dead ; at present it
is quiescent, but it will soon show itself not
only in the stock market but in every de¬
partment of the active business of the
country.





OUR ELEVATED ROADS.

Sometime since we called the attention of
the public to the impossibility of the elevated
roads carrying passengers during any hour of
the day for 5 cents. We said that the law per¬
mitted them to charge higher fares, and that
if the road went into the hands of a receiver,
he would be forced to run the elevated sys¬
tem for the benefit of the stockholders, and
not of the public. We said all this at a time
when there, was a unanimous howl on tne
part of the daily press against our system of
elevated roads. The companies were held
up as criminals because they did not pay the
outrageous tax lievied upon them by the city
and courts. We believe that an unjust tax,
and have tried to discriminate between the
manipulators of the stock of the elevated
road and the roads themselves. The latter
have proved of enormous benefit to New
York, the former are among the very worst
specimens Wall street has ever produced.

President Galloway, of the Manhattan
Company, is now out with a statement that
every passenger carried costs the Manhattan
Company 8.62 cents, while the average fare
is 6.81, leaving a net loss of 1.81 on every
person carried. Receiver Hopkins also shows
by comparison with other roads, that the
elevated system is the cheapest ever at¬
tempted. We judge that the Receiver will
charge the full legal fare before two months
are over, and then, of course, wfil come the
cry of indignation from thesame people who
so stupidly insisted upon the outrageous tax
levied upon the elevated roads. The news¬
paper howl against them was due to the
manipulation of the speculative directors,
who were then short of the stock, at high
prices, but who since then have, no doubt,
loaded up at the lower figures.





It is understood that nothing is being
done towards draining the Twenty-third and
Twenty-fourth Wards. Everything is in
readiness, but the Corporation Counsel de¬
clines to execute the law because of the
poor pay allowed the Commissioners. An
effort was made to increase the compensa¬
tion of the Commissioners who would act
under the law, but it failed. It seems to be
Ltoo bad that the health of 40,000 persons