Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXX.





NEW TOEK, SATUEDAT, JULT 8, 1882.





No. 747





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

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

Commimications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 101 Broadway;

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.

The letter which appears this morning,
from our well-informed Chicago correspond¬
ent, in regard to the present condition and
future prospects of the crops is of more than
passing interest. The writer has unusual
facilities for procuring the most reliable
information on this subject, and, as he has
no interest to serve by making his reports
favorable or otherwise, the utmost reliance
may be placed upon this report. That the
wheat crop is assured, and a very bountiful
one, is beyond question, and if, as our cor¬
respondent thinks, we should have a large
orop of corn, we may look forward with
confidence to prosperous times for at least
another year. That this prosperity will
make itself felt in real estate.there can be
little doubt, and on all sides we hear predic¬
tions of a very active market in the autumn.





We publish this week the first of a series
of papers of more than usual interest on
interior decoration of dwellings. This sub¬
ject, at the present time, is occupying a large
share of public attention. As the writer of
these articles is thoroughly posted in this
matter, we feel sure that they will prove
both interesting and instructive.





NOVELTIES IN CITY ARCHITECTURE.
An architect named Hamilton, who, by
the way, was the person who trained A, B.
MuUett for his business, was an earnest ad¬
vocate of the use of statuary and busts as
adornments to the front of a certain class of
buildings. He succeeded in getting his ideas
put into shape in several well-known edifices.
Were he alive to-day, he would find that his
favorite theory was beginning to be ac¬
cepted, and that faces and figures were be¬
ginning to be used to relieve the monotony
of the fronts of noble houses. An instance
is to be found on Samuel J. Tilden's new
house on Gramercy Square. This building
is worth a visit, as showing many novelties
in the way of adornment. During the last
three years architects have been trying
many showy experiments. Such of our
readers as have not already done so, should
take a walk up Fifth avenue and down
Madison avenue east of the Central Park.
He will observe that the houses of our
nouveaux riches are daring in their origin¬
ality. The reign of the brown stone front
is over for the very choicest houses, while
brick with stone trimmings and stones of
many colors are used in new and striking
combinations. Mr. Armour's dwelling at
the corner of Fifth avenue and Sixty-eighth
street, and the buildings which immediately
adjoin it, furnish good specimens of the





kind of houses our very rich people affect.
The fronts are highly embellished, and the
designs are strikingly original.

The Vanderbilt family mansions have done
something to cause a break in the type of
house which was considered the most
fashionable in New York. Hereafter
wealthy people, wnen a new home is pro¬
jected, will prefer one which has some dis¬
tinction apart from its neighbors, and they
will not be afraid of a design which involves
originality and some strikingljj novel fea¬
tures. Some of the fronts on Fifth and
Madison avenues are very attractive in ap¬
pearance, and the architects who have tried
new effects have been very happy in their
experiments. The taste of the average
American is somewhat flamboyant—he
wants something strikingly peculiar, and
this fact will, in time, give us a race of
architects who wdl not fear novelties in the
way of striking exteriors. If the present
demand for apartment houses continues, we
may naturally expect in time the erection of
many really magnificent buildings which
will architecturally dwarf anything erecte.d
or now under way.

But the really splendid dwelling houses of
the future, whether for single persons or to
accommodate a number of families, will, in
all probability, be erected along the Boule¬
vard, Riverside Drive, Eighth avenue and
on the heights wesi of Morningside Park.
They will use up more ground than the best
houses east of the park. They will have
shade trees, winding walks, and room for
ornamental plants. A few prosperous years,
with a growing population, will lead to the
erection of some costly dwellings, most of
which will achieve distinction in the way of
architecture. The hotels of the future will
also be beautiful in appearance, and not
mere barns like the Windsor Hotel.





A PROPOSED CREMATORY.
In a great and populous cityHhe question
of what shall we do with our dead must
ever be an important one. This is especially
true of New York where the limited space,
as well as the great value of realty, in addi¬
tion to the rapid march of improvement,
render the establishing of large cemeteries
in convenient localities for the interment of
the dead practically an impossibility. A
number of gentlemen of this city and Brook¬
lyn, recognizing these facts, have recently
formed a company known as the United
States Cremation Company, with a capital
of $50,000. They have determined to erect
a iiandsome crematory on the Grand Boule¬
vard, not far south of One Hundred and
Fifth street. The architects have exercised
rare skill in the treatment of the design for
this novel structure, which when erected
will present a very imposing and unique ap¬
pearance. It is the intention of this com¬
pany to make a regular business of the
incineration of the dead, so that the use of
the new proposed crematory wiU not be
confined to the stockholders of the company,
> but be open to the public at large.   That this





scheme may prove a financial success seems
quite possible when we remember that it
vf ill be the first erected on this side of the
Atlantic, excepting of course the late Dr. Le
Moyne's, at Washington, Pa., which is
strictly a private affair.

It is claimed with some justice, by those
who favor cremation, that if the manner in
which the process is carried out, and its
manifold advantages were fully understood,
that it would not be long before this method
of disposing of the remains of those who have
ended their earthly career would come into
general use. Many persons imagine that a
body is exposed to the fire when cremated
in a manner somewhat similar to burning on
a pyre as practised by the ancients and in
late years by many of the inhabitants of
India and Japan. Nothing could be farther
from the truth, as at no time does eitner the
fle.=?h or bones come into contact with the
flames for an instant.

The method now employed in cremating
a body is a very simple one; the body is
wrapt in a winding sheet saturated with
alum, placed in a crib in the chapel, whence
it descends by an elevator to the crematory
chamber. This by means of superheated air
has been previously heated to a white heat,
at a temperature of 1,500 Fahrenheit. When
opened to receive the body the iurushing
cold air cools this chamber to a delicate rose
tint. After remaining here for about an
hour thej body is completely decomposed,
nothing remaining but the pure ashes (about
4 per cent, of the original weight) which are
taken out and placed in an urn. This may
then be given to the relatives of the deceased
to dispose of as they may desire.

A body that is buried decornposes by slow
combustion. Cremation is simply rapid
combustion, and by it is accomplished in
less than a single hour what, under the burial
system, requires many years of loathsome
decay and the hungry work of worms, moles
and snakes. While cremation, as well as
burial, debars all hope of extended life on
this earth, the former goes further and pre¬
vents what is so vividily described by Edgar
Allen Poe, when he says, "To be buried alive
is beyond question the most terrific of all
extremes^ which have ever fallen to the lot
of mere mortality." Cremation elso deprives
the graveyard ghoul of his occupation and
the body shatcher of his victim.

It is said that funerals in the United
States last year cost more than the total
gold and silver yield of the entire country.
But quite recently there have been several
cases in our courts where the excessive
charges of the undertakers, as well as the
needless display and pomp at the funerals of
those who died possessed of but very mode¬
rate means, were severely criticized, the
judges refusing to approve of the bills. On
the other hand it is claimed that a body may
be cremated, all diie respect being carefully
observed, for the trifling sum of $15.00, to
which must of course be added the moderate
expense of a cinerary urn or terra cotta chest
for the preservation of the ashes.