Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXIX.





NEW TOEK, SATUEDAY, MAY 6, 1882.





No. 738





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

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

Communications should he addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager.





The Real Estate Record offices are now
at 191 Broadway, corner of Dey street.





COMPARED BY MONTHS.
The following table gives tlie niimber of
conxeyances and mortgages for April, to¬
gether with the preceding nionths up to and
including September, 1881. With the ex¬
ception of the two winter months this
exhibit shows there has been a steady
increase in the number of transactions and
the amounts involved. There were less than
four hundred transfers in September and
over fourteen hundred in April, w^hile the
|5,0U0,000of the one month is swollen to
$20,000,000 in March and April. One notable
circumstance is the increase of transactions
in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth
Wards. The money transactions in the
property of the annexed district are nearly
three times greater than they were in Sep¬
tember last. But again the caution should
be borne in mind tbat the table we give
represents the bargains actually made in
March but not recorded until April.

23d &

1881.     Cons.        Am't.      Nom. 24th VV. Am't.   nom

Sept.      3S9  ,   $4,9.37,744      103        .59     S218,nei      12

Oct.        619        8,6-24,824       109         ':5       381,5'0      23

Nov.       876       13,464,964       235       133       353..5(i5      19

Dec.       719       14,459,915      226        72       190,010      10
1882.

Jan.      785       13,970,643      190      102       2G0.735      22

Feb.       904       11,776,640       273         91       317,3^6      31

Mar.    1,191       20,422,338      294      119       .376,293      38

Apr.     1,471       19,090,316      340      133       5-^7,989      22

T. &

1881.   Morts.     Am't.  5 p. c.   Am'c.     I. Co.   Am't.

Sept.      497   S4,329,ri2     96   $1,261,881     89   $1,848,2.50

Oct.       793     6,071.0:26   134     1,333,181   141     2,09.5,125

Nov.      954    12,3I.5,n3   208     2,556.695   166     5,30,3,^73

Dec.      856    10,177,583   153     1,931,891   183     3,112,304
1883.

Jan.      857     7,998,831.  183     2,217,187   170     2..553,550

Feb.      942     8,66.),902   209     3,295.518   173     2,055,000

Mar.   1,017    13,680.536   274     4,314,082   189     3,294.405

Apr.    1,184    10,6.5,845   3^9     8,411,940   154     2,581,9 0





THE NEW YORK, WEST SHORE AND
BUFFALO RAILWAY.
Real estate on the west shore of the Hud¬
son will be affected in a very important de¬
gree by the rapid completion of the West
Shore Road. The east shore has been built up
to its present .state of remarkable develop¬
ment by the railroad facilities which it en¬
joys, and the west shore promises now to
have very soon equal advantages. There is
li'^ely to be a marked rise in realty all along
this new railway, which will give the
country on the west shore of the Hudson the
first direct communication it has ever had
with New York. In this respect, the New
York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway, bids
fair to turn out one of the most useful and
valuable enterprises to the community ever
undertaken in this State. ■ The laying of
steel rails, which has actually begun at Syr¬
acuse, aud will be going on at various points





of the road with great energy during the
next few weeks, shows that no interruption
is being allowed to intervene in this work,
involving so vast an expenditure. Over
10,000 tons of heavy 67-pound steel rails
with fastenings and cross ties have been de¬
livered alongside the tracks. In passing
different points of the line we have lately
been struck by the extraordinarily solid
character of the construction. The road is
being built as though it was to last forever.
The heavy steel rails, the rock-ballasted
track, which promise to afford great
smoothness of motion in the cars, the
strong iron bridges and substantial cul¬
verts of masonry all give the char¬
acter of the work an aspect of excep¬
tional endurance, solidity, and perma¬
nence. The immense accommodation which
this road will be to people traveling on the
west shore, may easily be realized from the
fact that, to take the summer season alone,
it has been estimated that 100,000 travelers
go to the Catskill region every summer.
Indeed, there are no bridges between New
York and Albany, and only eight steam fer¬
ries, which are an average distance of 18"
miles apart. If a resident of West Point,
for instance, wants to go to Newburg, he
must cross the river twice, and the same
tedious course must be taken with reference
to any freight which he may have to ship.
The counties on the west shore of the Hudson,
which are traversed by the New York, West
Shore & Buffalo Railway, embrace |one of
the richest agricultural and manufacturing
belts in the United States. The sales from
their farms amount to about $60,000,000 per
annum, and the value of their manufactures
in 1880 Avas over $360,000,000. It has been
calculated that the population of these,
counties on the west shore of the Hudson
exceeds that on the east shore by 80 per
cent.—it is nearly double, therefore. The
people along the new line appear to appre¬
ciate the beneficial effects which the New
York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway will
exercise on their property and business in¬
terests, for the city authorities of the larger
towns, like Newburg, have readily given the
railway company almost invaluable rights of
way through their very centres, and the com¬
pany have been uniformly successful in secur¬
ing a full 100 feet of land across their tracks
from the farmers on very advantageous
terms. The line is so straight, and the
curves and grades are so exceedingly easy
and favorable, that the road, with the large
local business of the west shore country be¬
tween New York and Albaiy, should be
very profitable, and have low operating ex¬
penses. Tliere is some talk of running trains
already this autumn, but some time must
pi'obably be allowed for the usual contingen¬
cies. The Record will continue to observe
with special interest the approaching comple¬
tion of the work which is likely to have so
marked an inflaence on real estate on the
west shore of the Hudson River, and to give
that side a wonderful stimulus for improve-
, ment and progress.





AGRARIANISM IN NEW   YORK.
The Herald has managed to raise a ghost
that will not down, in its discussions about
the rent question in New York.   Proceeding
upon the theory that there was some relation
between the land troubles in Ireland and the
paying of rent in New York, it gave the
Communists an argument by showing tha,t
there were some 16,000 evictions in New
York in one year.   There were,  it seems,
that number of persons or families who were
forced to leave their apartments for non¬
payment of rent.   At several of the recent
meetings of laborers, this fact was restated
in order to create a prejudice against land¬
lords as a class, and to begin in this country
an organization for the reduction, if not the
abolition of rent paying.   The Herald is now
forced to rebuke the demagogues who are
raising the " No Rent" banner in New York.
Of course, there is no comparison between
the state of Ireland and the condition of
things in New York.    When an Irish tenant
is evicted from a farm, the improvements on
which are in great part his own, he has no¬
where to go, he must starve or die; but a
New York tenant who is dispossessed has
tens of thousands of other tenements to go
to, and if he is penniless there are hundreds
of ways by which he and his family can get
relief.   He has no moral claim on the land¬
lord any more than the greatest stranger in
the world.   Were it a part of the written or
unwritten law that tenants had a claim upon
the landlord, it would result in an enormous
tax upon the whole community, for  the
landlords,   to  provide an  insurance   fund
against delinquent tenants, would, in order
to get an equitable return for their money,
be forced to raise rents 10,15 or 20 per cent.,
or whatever the losses would be, due to the
carelessness or dishonesty of non-rent pay¬
ing tenants.   It is clearly in the interest of
honest rent payers that the law enforcing
the summary collection of rents should be
prompt and stern,   A certainty of there-
turn for his outlay is what the landlord has
a right to expect, and it is in the interest of
the community that his just exi^ectations
should   be   realized.      Unfortunately,   the
local justices and magistrates who adjudi¬
cate matters affecting landlords and tenants
are elected by the popular vote, and they do
what they can to modify the law in the sup¬
posed interest of the delinquent tenant.   In
helping to defraud landlords they are really
injuring the rent paying class, and it is a
matter of amazement that a paj)er like the
Herald, owned by one of the largest land¬
owners in New York,  and which receives
more money from the legitimate real estate
interest than any other paper in the country,
should have started this mischievous agita¬
tion, the more mischievous in view of our
large Irish tenement population, and  the
number of dishonest people who congregate
in large cities.   On this subject, we have
received the following communication:
editor Real Estate Record:

The anti-landlord cry, which you speak of in
your paper, will very likely assume gigantic
eminence in our politics.   Emigrants, who have