Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXYIII.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, OCTOBEE 15, 1881.





No. 709





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

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

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 13T Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





There is a common remark that so and so,
who f ormally^had a bad reputation, is now so
rich that he can afford to be honest.     This,
however, is contradicted in every case where
a dishonest speculator wishes to make a deal,
no matter how i-icli he may be.    William H.
Vanderbilt has not scrupled to deceive his
friend^ and tlie public Avhen a great stoclc
speculation was on hand.     It was his ow^n
associates who lost the most money in his
Western Union deal wlien he sold out to Jay
Gould.    Cyrus W. Field is a very rich man,
but look at his course in the 'elevated road
system and the sale of Manhattan stock.
Jay Gould is  the latest instance.     He not
only used his organ, the World, to show how
utterly worthless w^as Manhattan, but he and
Sage made affidavits that the stock was val¬
ueless in their opinion.    This was to api^ar-
ently prevent tlie issue of receivers certifi¬
cates.    Yet when Gould was thus deceiving
investors and inducing short sales, he was
quietly buying up the stock and within ten
days after he had made his solemn oath that
Manhattan was worthless, he was the owner
of a majority of the stock.     Hundreds, if
not thousands, of small operators have lost
a great deal of money by the way Gould has
acted in this one security.     Many an lion-
ester man tlian these leaders of the street is
now serving his time out in our states prisons.
Once a rascal, always a rascal, whether he is
worth ten cents or a hundred million.     Jay
Gould has the press of the country by the
throat through his control of the telegraph,
and hence nothing is said.    Our readers will
recall the fact the Real Estate Record has
always said that Manhattan stock would not
bo wiped out and that the rich rogues who
were decrying it were secretly buying it up,
and such has proved to be the case.





such marked advance as has been seen on
this island. People who deal in real estate
should pick out the choicest properties their
.means can afford. In nineteen cases in
twenty when a parcel of land is cheap it is
undesirable. Better have one good lot well
located than two lots or even four in a back¬
ward neighborhood. A few lots on this
island will be of more permanent value than
a corresponding number of acres on the op¬
posite shore of the Hudson River.





Some time since attention was called in
these columns to the recovery of prices in
New York City realty. We instanced a case
of a large real estate legal firm, whose clients
apparently lost heavily in West Side build¬
ing lots because of the shrinkage in values
after the panic of 1873. Property which
cost $15,000 was marked down to $8,000 and
under in 1877. But the same lots to-day show
a profit of from 15 to 35 per cent, over the
original investment. All who were able to
hold their property on this island came out
largely ahead. Brooklyn realty owners have
not been so lucky. Lots were offered last
week at auction which came far short of the
taxes and assessments. There has been some
and, in a few cases, a fair recovery in values
on the other side of the East Eiver, but no





The talk about additional park facilities
has resulted in a scheme for having a
pleasure ground in the Tw'enty-f ourth Ward,
extending from Highbridge to a point be¬
yond Hastings, ten miles in length and
3,000 feet wide. This gigantic park is to
embrace 3,500 acres. It will be 5,000 feet
distant from the Hudson river and there is
to be an east and a west side avenue, each
150 feet wide. The ground will cost about
$1,000 an acre, or $3,500,000 in all. Should
this magnificent scheme be carried out, the
present dulness in real estate north of the
Harlem river, would be followed by very
great activity. But as yet it is only a
scheme, aud may never amount to anything,

------------<•>------------

We called attention some time ago to the
remarkable change that was to take place in
New^ York in the construction of large, in
the place of small or moderate sized houses.
The way things are going on, New York wull
soon have a greater number of vast build¬
ings than any city in the world. These great
structures   are   not   for   business i)iirposes
merely,  but   are   intended   for   dwellings.
Great flats and apartment houses have be¬
come an essential feature of New York City
life.    It is noticeable that all the new build¬
ings ou Broadway are both deep and high.
One or more elevators have become an indis¬
pensable   adjunct   to   new   houses on this
island.    It follows that the time is coming
when   there will be more  people  to   the
square foot in this city than in any of the
other capitals of the world.    Our street pop¬
ulation will,   as   a   consequence,   become
denser than in any other city.   New York
will, in appearance at least, in ten years time
be the most populous city on the globe.   It
no longer pays to erect a small house in a
valuable location.   To get a good interest, a
large edifice with many offices or apartments
must be constructed.   While the fashion for
large houses at present diminishes the de¬
mand for,   and consequently the price of,
unimproved real estate, it will eventually
lead to very high prices in all eligible loca¬
tions, either for business or living purposes.
Where population becomes dense, land must
necessarily become high.





tary of the Treasury, Jones will be supreme
in that department. It is believed that Ros¬
coe Conkling will eventually be the Secre¬
tary of the Treasury, but it is not consid¬
ered wise for him to take office just yet. It
is understood that this fadmimstration will
be inimical to Jay Gould. The President,
Roscoe Conkling, and Senator Jones have
come in antagonism with Gould ih several
transactions. The new President takes no
stock in the anti-monopoly cry; he is a friend
of the great corporations. The above infor¬
mation is based on excellent authority.





Private advices from Washington are to
the effect that the most influential advisor
of the new administration will be Senator
John P. Jones, of Nevada. Jones has a sec¬
ond self in an Englishman, named Robert¬
son, who writes Jones's speeches and re¬
ports.   If Timothy O. Howe is made Secre-





THE COURSE OF PRICES.
It is a truism among those who have
studied tlze course of prices, that when there
is a revival of business, it is Stock Exchange
securities which are first affected, then gene¬
ral merchandise, labor and land coming last
of all. An expansion in prices, whether
gradual or sudden, is in consequence of, or
accompanied by an increase in the volume
of the currency. It makes no difference
what the currency is, papier, silver or gold,
money is the measure of prices. The vast
additions of bullion, especially gold, to the
paper money in use before 1879, have given
us an advancing market for nearly every¬
thing for two years and seven months.
Stocks were first affected; next came labor.
The active speculation in corn, wheat and
the metals shows that the fever has got into
the veins of trade. It cannot be long before
the speculative activity will manifest itself
vigorously in real estate.

Last June we warned builders and con¬
tractors that labor, and all the products of
labor, would soon show a large advance in
prices. The increased demand for work¬
people came soonsr than expected, due, how¬
ever, to excessive building. But here we
are in the second month of the fall season,
with the prices of all material showing an
advance over the figures obtained last spring.
Nor do we see any immediate prospect of
average lower prices for labor, or of anything
which labor manipulates.

It is in times such as these that everybody
may be said to be making money. The com¬
petition is not among would-be sellers, but
among buyers. Every one sees, or thinks he
sees a profitln the business he is engaged in,
and he is eager to employ labor and to lay in
stocks of raw material. It follows that the
bank accounts of the saving class are in¬
creasing. In such times, even if business
men have not any ready money, the steady
growth of their assets makes them feel easy,
and hence they purchase more than in ordin¬
ary times. A continuance of this steady
employment of labor and enhancement in
values, inevitably ends in a furore for pur¬
chasing real estate. As soon as a man makes
money, he wishes to secure himself a home,
and, on the first intimation of hard times,
timid capitalists put their money into real
property. This is why real estate " booms "
up to the very beginning of a panic, and it
also explains why it is real estate values are
, 80 stubborn in periods of 4 financial j^ disaster