September 12, 1885





The   Record  and Guide.





991





THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,

Published every Saturday.

IQl Broad^w^av, IST. "ST.





Our Telephone Call ts





JOHN 370.





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Commimications should be addressed to

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J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XXXVI.           SEPTEMBER 13. 1885.





No. 913





On Monday next the Real Estate Exchange will begin to justify
its name and organization by doing business in the same manner
as otlier exchanges; that is to say, the brokers will meet at stated
hours on the floor of the Liberty street building and make their
bargains witli one another. This ought to save time and largely
increase the number of transactions. The Record and Guide
will shortly issue a supplemental sheet to record the transactions
at these daily gatherings.





Two surface railroad companies struggle at once for the posses¬
sion of Fifth avenue ; yet Fifth avenue may prove very coy to
win, immediately, even by one suitor. The desire to build railroads
in New York seems to be developing into something of a craze, the
cable company having appeared before the Board of Aldermen in
behalf of their scheme with a petition as long as Broadway, while
reports of cases in court for the promotion or prevention of new
schemes have become about as familiar as a morning newspaper.
There are two things to be kept in view when considering this
question. We want all the new facilities for transit to be had ;
but it is a nice point in fiuance to know just when and where a
new road can be built without taking the amount of the new
investment from tlie value of roads already in operation.
When a new road injures materiaUy the value of an old road it is
not needed by the public, except in cases where the route is better
chosen for public convenience. It is a Jittle curious that, in a city
which depends for its continued supremacy on its commerce, the
means for passenger traffic should be alone studied, while the
movement of merchandise, handled here in a more extravagant
aud wasteful manner than anywhere else in the world, is alto¬
gether neglected. Y^et, there is more money to be made in enter¬
prises for conveniently warehousing and moving freight than in all
the passenger railways that can be conceived. Tbe cost of useless
work in handling merchandise in New York is greater than the
gross receipts of all the elevated and surface railroads put together.





It is moi'e than possible that the Legislature, in the attempt at
protecting buildings against the danger of fire communicated
through elevator shafts, has made conditions that will lead to addi¬
tional risks. Under the new law all elevators must be operated
within an enclosure of brick walls. Such a system of construction
necessarily makes a flue, opening out upon each floor of a building,
through which flames, propelled by a strong draft, could readily
leap from story to story without meeting with much resistance.
But elevators are not necessarily run in enclosed shafts. As a
matter of fact, the arrangements of many of these now almost
indispensable conveniences for reaching the intermediate and upper
floors of tall buildings do not create a flue at all. This is true of
the elevators in the Boreel building, and wherever stair wells are
utilized in construction no flues are formed. A law then which
compels the erection of flues in all instances, even though com¬
posed of brick or other fire-proof material, seems like a defective
law. Undoubtedly, in all cases where flues are created in the con¬
struction of an elevator fire-proof material should be used; but in
cases where such a conductor of fire and smoke is unnecessary its
construction should not be forced. Hatches for each floor to be
kept carefully closed when the elevator is not running, or closed
immediately on the appearance of fire, would be the best protec¬
tion in a great majority of instances. The construction of a shaft
which becomes a flue when fire makes its way inside through any
opening should be avoided whenever possible.





The Gibbs' committee ought to find a good deal of matter for
investigation in the building of the new regimental armories. The
project was monstrously extravagant in the first place, and the
Legislature is to blame for sanctioning the extravagance. Probably
this is becau .e no legislator cared to encounter the hostility of the
National Guard. Because the Seventh Regiment built itself an
armory by the aid of its friends, it was argued that every other
regiment should have an armory at the public expense. The argu-
seent isveiylame.   In fact, t'wo or three armories would amply





suffice for the whole city. If the project had been for brigade
instead of regimental armories, there would have been more sense
in it. The enormous drill-room required constitutes the main
expense of an armory. There is no reason why this should not be
used by three or four regiments in common since none of them
holds a battalion drill every evening. The project, as it now exists,
is practically to present a $300,000 club house to every organization
mustering, say 500 active members. There is no reason in this, and
it is fair to presume that unless somebody had a strong personal
interest in its execution, so extravagant a i>rogramme would not
have been carried out. It remains to be seen whether the commit¬
tee is working at random or upon information in investigating tho
purchase of the land for the armories.





The commissioners of accounts have spread a very thin coat of
whitewash over the office of the corporation attorney. In their
report submitted to the Mayor they blame the civil justices and tlie
police. By the law the duty of the corporation attorney is
to conduct *' all actions to recover penalties for a violation of
any law or ordinance." It is notorious that many laws and ordin¬
ances are continually violated, and that no penalties are recovered
for their violation, nor any other measure taken to discourage the
violators. If the civil justices do not do their duty when cases are
brought before them, it is evidently the business of the corporation
attorne)^ to expose and prosecute them. He can at least make it under¬
stood where the fault lies, and if he cared anything about the duties
of his office he would not be content with doing less than this.
But nobody has heard any complaint from the corporation attor¬
ney until a complaint is made of him. Then he undertakes to
screen himself behind the civil justices and his investigators help
him to do so. The ordinances will never be enforced by an official
of tbat kind.





The cars on the Tenth Avenue Cable road are now running with
reasonable regularitj^ and despatch, and the road is undoubtedly
the ideal road for climbing a hill. Up the steep grades from tho
level of One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street to the altitude of
Highbridge, the cars move swiftly and without friction. But it is
not quite the ideal road, we fear, for level grades. In the first
place, at the bend of the road from Tenth avenue into Manhattan
street, the noise of the cable is like the rumbling of a huge factory,
and throughout the line there is a continuous and monotonous
whizzing distinctly and disagreeably audible at a considerable dis¬
tance, and somewhat trying to unstable nerves. Then, again, the
grip car, made to carry passengers as well as its following car,
does not move smoothly, the jar being decidedly uncomfortable,
while the rumbling of the two cars together is exceedingly pro¬
nounced. It is to be hoped that all these disagreeable incidents to
a ride on the Tenth Avenue road will disappear when the machin¬
ery has been longer in use. But there is one thing wrong in the
construction of the road that was evidently not meant to disappear.
The tracks are not laid side by side in the centre of the street, like
the tracks of a horse railroad, but about equi-distant from thecurbh
and from each other, thus dividing the avenue into three nearlj
equal parts. It is easy to see that on a crowded street with the
road running frequent cars this arrangement would prove very
inconvenient, leading to frequent collisions and making traffic, in
fact, almost impracticable.





We will not say that the Treasury Department is not right in
attempting to force silver into circulation by withholding small
notes. It was imdoubtedly the purpose of the Silver Coinage law to
make silver circulate, but we all know the force of habit. When sub¬
sidiary silver coins were first made to take the place of the fractional
notes we all remember with what fond regrets some men clung to
their shin-plasters, and how unwillingly they yielded them up to
either of the twin destroyei's—Time or the Treasury. We have
used a paper currency for so long a time now that it seems almost
impossible to get either gold or silver into circulation. But it is
unquestionably true that the use of paper currency, founded on the
credit of the government, even after it becomes convertible into
gold or silver, is demoralizing. We would never have had the legal
tender decision, with all its extreme and revolutionary significance,
had gold and silver been the only currency bearing the government
stamp. It would be a good thing to get rid of some of our paper
legal tenders and substitute the precious metals in their stead. Sil¬
ver, up to the amount where it cau be replaced by a $2.50 gold piece,
will not prove an inconvenience; and men will soon learn to like it
better than these greasy and often mutilated one and two dollar
notes. The change is only a mechanical question. We must change
the fashion in purses. If any persons want to pay a premium foi
small notes that is their kettle of fish, and not a matter of public
concern.





There is too rauch reason to fear that a prolongation of the rail¬
road war, made manifest by a continued cutting of rates from the
West, is contemplated,   If thia be true there can be but one reason