Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





YoL. XXX.





NEW YORK, SATUEDAT, SEPTEMBER 9, 1882.





Nr. 756





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

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

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Edison's electric light was tested down
town during the past week, and from all ac¬
count was very successful. The stockholders
of this electric company have waited a good
while, but at length, it seems they are to be
rewarded for their patience. The light is of
a yellowish tint, pleasant to tho eye and it
does not flicker. When in general use, it
will be a real boon to people with defective
sight, who will read with as little distress as
they now do in day time. It now looks as
though New York will be tho first city to
utilize electricity for domestic lighting.
This will add value to New York property,
for rich and luxurious people will prefer to
live in a city where they can have all the
advantages of gas light without any of its
drawbacks. Gas was a great advance on tal¬
low, wax and whale oil, but it vitiated the
air of rooms by destroying the oxygen, in-
, creased the temperature in warm weather,
'and no device has even been suggested for
softening the glare so as to save weak eyes
from distress. Should the steam heating
companies succeed in banishing furnaces,
stovrs and cooking ranges. New York will
become a very paradise for people who wish
to live luxuriously and under the most fav¬
orable sanitary conditions.





The robbery of a safe deposit company at
Boston ought to have its effect upon the
patrons of similar institutions in this city.
A safe deposit company in effect announces
to the world that its vaults are filled with
all manner of valuables.   They in fact notify
the criminal classes where the plunder is to
be found.   Ever since banks were establish¬
ed, they have been among the chief sufferers
from the skillful forger or burglar.    A list of
all the attempts to rob banks would fill many
large volumes, and the time cannot be distant
when ingenious rascals will test their wiis in
opening the vaults of some one of the safe
deposit companies.   These conlain precious
stones, coupon bonds, and very often ready
money.   If a mob should ever get possession
of the city, as it did during the riots of 1863,
tiie leaders would know where to go to se¬
cure the plunder.   Depositors should under¬
stand that there is no insurance upon the
property they give for safe keeping.   The
sufferers by the burning of the Morrill ware¬
houses had to pocket all the lossjthemselves,
and should any of the safe deposit compan¬
ies be plundered, it will be found that no
one is responsible or will make good the
losses.   In nine cases out of ten the patrons
f these institutions do not know the officers,
and one dishonest employe in a large insti¬





tution may steal hundreds of thousands of
dollars, and there is no one to call to ac¬
count. This matter is alluded to merely to
imiress upon the people who patronize these
safe deposit companies, that a little vigilance
now may save them a good deal of money

by and by.

--------•----—

A YEAR OF ABUNDANCE.

The Mark Lane Express, M. Estienne, the
well-known statistician, and the London
Times all agree that the harvests of the y ear
1882 are abundant everywhere. The latest
reports from Russia, Germany, Austria,
Italy, France, Great Britain, and all parts of
the United States settles the question that
the food production of this year is probably
greater all over the globe than it ever was
before. In Spain alone is there any com¬
plaint.

The London Times is quite justified in say¬
ing: " Never during the time since these re¬
ports were collected, has the harvest in the
northern hemisphere been so good all round.
We usually had to report a deficiency either
in Europe or America. This year there is ab¬
solutely none. The world has over an aver¬
age harvest, and with such a harvest the
year is likely to be one of cheap abund¬
ance."

So much being settled, it is for wise men
to make their own deductions as to the bus¬
iness of the world for the coming year. It
would seem to follow:

1.  That breadstuffs, potatoes, and other
edible roots will be cheaper than in any year
for a decade.

2.  That the abundance and cheapness of
all other vegetable food will bring down the
price of corn, which ought to be a sale at
present figures.

3.  That pork and meats must sell for very
much lower figures before the end of the





the man he was on Staten Island, where he
was born, but when he died neither his
birthplace nor the city in which he accumu¬
lated his vast wealth were remembered in
his will, his only important charitable be¬
quest was for a female college in Tennessee;
a state which certainly never did anything
for him or his. Commodore Vanderbilt's
claim to the respect of those who followed
him was for the splendid raUroad system
he had reorganized, and the admirable busi¬
ness principles upon which it wias conducted,
but it would have been a graceful thing for
him to have appropriated a fund to drain
Staten Island, and make his birthplace as
healthful and habitable as it is picturesque.
Wealthy New Yorkers must bear in mind in
making their wiUs that they must not dis¬
criminate against the city in which they
have accumulated their fortunes. With all
its faults of government New York is still a
city to be proud of, and its children must
not neglect it.





year.

4.  That sti ikes and demands for higher
wages must come to an e^d when goods fall
off in price.   Hence cheaper production.

5.  That cott»n ought to be in demand this
year in view of the general employment of
the working classes, and the actual enhance¬
ment of their means because of the smaller
sums of money needed to buy food.

6.  That the railroads and transportation
lines will have an immense business this
year in bringing the crops East and taking
goods West.    ______

The late Mr. Jesse Hoyt, in the distribu¬
tion of his property by will, made provision
for beautifying a town in which he was in¬
terested in Michigan, but not a dollar did he
leave to benefit the great city in which he
made all of his vast fortune. It is not
known that this great merchant ever gave a
donation to a religious institution or charity
in the metropolis. Had he left everything
to his family, as did the late Moses Taylor,
there would be but little comment, but his
benefactions to East Saginaw naturally cre¬
ates some remark. The late Commodore
Vanderbilt got the training that made him





WHY NO "BOOM."
Last week we ventured to predict that.
there was not likely to be any unusual ex¬
citement in the stock market early this fall.
The bulls have made a handsome profit
during th.? past summer in discounting the
harvest, but somehow the flgures in the
stock lists do not keep advancing, although
the newspaper organs of Wail street are
unanimously ranged oa the bull side. But
it was not to be expected that the trade of
the country should immediately recover
after the disappointment which followed
the poor crops of 1881. All large dealers
were crippled and some impoverished by
the shrinkage of values from the time
President Garfield was shot down to the
third week in June of this year. We have
now entered upon the season when money
is in active demand, not only in general
business, but to move the crops. This in¬
volves a decrease in the volume of money
at the banking centres. Last year the mar¬
ket was relieved by the gold importations,
but there is no likelihood of a renewal of
these imports until much later on in the
season, if at all.

In studying the situation one of the points
to be kept in mind is  the very great in¬
crease in our ability to manufacture goods.
Production in that field   far  outruns the
increase in our agricultural resources.   In¬
deed, the ratio has been estimated as high
as five to one.   As our manufacturers have
only our home market to look to on account
of our present high tariff,  there is every
danger of a "glut," that is, of overproduc¬
tion.   Then, while it is very true that a very
heavy business is being done in the sale of
goods to western consumers, it is also true
that there are more goods made than sold.
There has been a large advance in raw cotton,
but  all kinds  of  cotton goods are   sell¬
ing below remunerative rates.   The known
stock of prints on the market is 300,000
pieces more than last year.     The raibroads,
^notwithstanding  the great  crop, show  a