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AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.
YoL. XXIX.
NEW TOKK, SATUEDAY, APKIL 22, 1882.
No. 736
Published Weekly by The
Real Estate PvEgord Association
TERMS:
QWa year, la advance - - - - - $6.00
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway
J.T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.
THE STEWART ESTATE.
The late A. T. Stewart has been regarded
as among the most successful men of his
age; yet there is no person, who, while he
lived, made so many and such conspicuous
mistakes. He bought real estate quite ex¬
tensively, but in nearly every case the pur¬
chase showed entire lack of judgment. He
purcriased once valuable property on Bleeck¬
er street, because it was cheap, unaware of
the fact that it was steadily deteriorating;
he got possession of old churches in unde-
s'lrable locations, while his acquisition of
the flats at Hempstead was a coni3j)icuous
instance of business folly. Hempstead was
cheap, because it v/as undesirable and una-
A'ailable, and the money in real estate is
made in proi^erty Avhich has a future, and
Avjiich is dear and will be dearer. Then Mr.
Stewart, during the whole of his active life,
effectively opposed underground aud ele¬
vated steam roads on Broadway, while the
street car was his particular aversion. But
the construction of the elevated road on
Sixth avenue has greatly increased the price of
reoity on that thoroughfare, and* has ruined
the retail business of Broadway below Four-
toentli street. Tiien, as hss been repeatedly
pointed out, it is that part of Broadway on
which street cars run, w^hicii retains its
Rreat retail business; that is to say, between
Fourteenth and Thirty-fourth street is not
only a favorite location for stores but for
tlieatres. To perpetuate his memory after
lie died, Mr. Stewart built a hotel for
women; he took every precaution to have
liis business firm continued under his own
name, while his final resting place v>-as to be
ia a splendid mausoleum ia Gaixleu City.
But tho Woman's Homo is now an ordinary
hotel, the great business whicii lie built up,
with so much care will not outlast, the pres¬
ent year, and his very body has disappeared,
and there are probably not more than three
persons who know the secret of its where¬
abouts. There are no poor women to thank
him for a luzurious home, there will be no
great establishment to perpetuate his fame
in the business world, and no innusoleuni
anywhere to mark the spot where he lie^; in¬
terred. After all, what a failure wuo liis
life, despite the money lie made as a mere
mercliant.
The great building on Broadway and
Tenth street is literally a white elephanl,:.
It is of no value as a store, it is too far down
aad too costly for an opera house or a thea¬
tre, and it would require tc o much money
to alter it into a hotel.. It was built on leased
ground, and bears an arinual rental of $36,000
to the Sailors' Snug Harbor estate. As for
the residence at the corner of Tliirty-fourth
street and Fifth avenue, it is equally useless
and will never bring half its cost when put
upon the market.
One of Stewart's mistakes was in not
training competent successors to conduct
the business upon his demise. He knew how
to organize the many departments of his
great establishment and give them compe¬
tent heads, but he chose a law3-er to conduct
a mercantile business, and from all accounts
it has been strangled by red tape. Stewart's
successor denied his assistants freedom of
action; they were cribbed, cramped and
confined in every possible way. Those Avho
were not forced to resign were asked to
leave, and department after department had
to be given up.
A. T. Stewart did one service to the trade
of the country. He established the one
price system and insisted upon cash pay¬
ments. This led to ^small profits and large
sales, which, while it concentrated the busi¬
ness into a few houses, was a benefit to the
community by the assurance it gave of
honest goods at reasonable rates.
THE FINANCIAL OUTLOOK.
The stock market has been so heavily
oversold that the bears are now the best
sustainers of prices. Any little flurry in
stocks sets thom covering and so prices are
pretty well maintained at the low level they
reached after the failure of tlie famous peg
speculation of Vanderbilt and Gould. There
does not, howevei', seem to be any present
prospect of a bull market. The same general
causes which have been depressing prices
since the crop failure of 1881, aro still at
work, and until there is a reasonable assur¬
ance of a good harvest, it is idle to expect
any marked advance in stock values. The
high prices for Governuients and the cheap¬
ness of money show tliat investors are not
buying but selling stocks and do not know
what to do with their money, hence it is un¬
employed or is in Governments, where it in
at least safe and can be reconverted into
money when things look better on the Stock
Exchange. The very large business that is
being done in real estate is due to the
natural desire on the parfc of investors to put
their money into somethiug v^diich lins a
better future than stocks and bonds. Usu¬
ally eas}'- money means a rising stock
market, but continuous clieap money
means that people who have large means
distrust all investments in stocks and are
keepiug theii' funds in Isand. The bulls
iiave a goad de.il to s;iy of the ilual effect on
stocks of the great immigration, but un-
fortunate'ly the railway receipts from that
source are but a trifle and the new labor
will hardly be available for helping the busi¬
ness of the country before next year. The
one interest that it will certainly stimulate
is that of unemproved real estate throughout
the country. All the western and north¬
western, roads must in time profit largely
* by the million people who come over this
year, as well as by the natural increase in
our native population.
The bears present some strong arguments
to sustain their view of the market. There
will be no silver conference in Paris and
hence no cheapening of the.money of the
world, which would of course show itself in
the enhanced value of everything purcliased
throughout the civilized world. The Ad¬
ministration is determined to do all it can to
discredit silver in this country. There is a
constant shrinking in the volume of our
national bank currency and some day the
gold artificially kept in the country will
find its way across the w^ater. Grain ship¬
ments have stopped, but little cotton is
going forward and we are actually repur¬
chasing provisions sent to foreign ports.
Our importations have increased and some
time or other there will be heavy differences
to settle in gold. Then again the crops may
turn out bad, in which case there will be a
heavy drop in the present figures. It is con¬
ceded that there is dulness in business
circles compared witli the activity of last
year. There is absolutely nothing to give us
higher prices but the immigration and the
IDromise of the crops. Without the latter
there ought to be a further shrinkage in
values, though of course there will be oc¬
casional vigorous rallies.
ANENT NEW PARKS.
The Sun objects to- the laying out of
parks in the annexed district, but favors
them in that part of the city which lies east,
of the Bowery and below Tompkins square.
Here live nearly 300.000 people who have no
park pleasure ground, while the iDopulation
is dense and the streets narrow. But the
reason for parks in the Twenty-third and
Twenty-fourth Wards is that the land cau
now be procured very cheap. These new
pleasure grounds would be accessible by the
elevated roads as well as by way of the Forty-
second street depot; but the construction of
new parks on the East Side would cost mil¬
lions of dollars, and would -do but little
good. But the city should do something for
this part of the metropolis. Portions of the
river front might be improved. Without any¬
thing so costly as the Thames embankment,
we might have pleasure gardens and refresh¬
ment places along the East River front,
utilizing open ground and the ends of the
piers. Then certain, streets might be lined
Avith trees. Much of this population find
relief in the hot summer nights by cheap
trips to Coney Island. Glen Island is also a
favorite and cheap resort for our East Side
people, and its success has been so gi-eat
that quite a number of places just beyond
Hell Gate on the Sound are being fitted up
for East Side summer excursionists. The
cost of the parks in the annexed district
need not be large enough to frighten even
our most economical taxpayers.
It is a noticeable circumstance that there
are relatively very few foreclosure suits,
while thei-e has been a decided falling off iu