May 29, 1886





The   Record  and   Guide.





703





THE   RECORD   AND   GUIDE,





Published every Saturday.

191 BroacL^weiv, :iT.

Our Teleplione Call is      ...      .





^^.





JOHN 370.





TERMS:

ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS.

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





ning of an enterprise the completion of which would so greatly
advantage the metropolis and all who own real estate therein.





Vol. XXXVII.





MAY 29, 1886.





No. 950.





This is generally rather a slack season in ordinary business years,
but some of the markets have shown unwonted activity during the
past week. The new impulse was first felt in our stock mar¬
ket, which was taken hold of by the bulls here and in the West,
and quotations were very smartly advanced. There is a feeling
that, for the present at least, the strikes as a disturbing factor is
over. Then we are shipping grain and cotton; there is an excel¬
lent consumptive demand for goods, the stocks of which in first
hands are not large. Money is easy, confidence has returned, and
the only really disquieting feature of the situation is the renewal of
the exports^of gold. This is due to the fact that although our exports
are better than they were our imports are unusually large. The
Wall street movement is a natural one. Stocks have been depressed
during the early part of this year by some very threatening factors.
With these out of the way there is a rebound iu the market such
as was to have been expected. But this flurry may not last long.
Real  estate  business is quieter, as was to be expected on the

approach of summer.

--------•--------

It is a suggestive fact that Chicago operators have for some time
past been the leaders in stock speculation on our New York
Exchange. Indeed, for some years past Chicago has supplied the
boldest operators on all our Exchanges, and they have often got the
cream out of the bull or bear campaigns before the New Yorkers
" caught on." The mortality among New York stock operators for
the past six months has been something remarkable—Vanderbilt,
Morgan, Heath, the Osborhes and Woerishoffer are dead, while
Jay Gould has retired and hosts of other so-called leaders
have stepped down and out. True, there is left Deacon White,
Newcombe, Cammack and a few others ; but the street as well as
the public does not expect to see the old vim in Wall street until
some new and young blood dominates the market. Chicago can
really felicitate itself, not only for keeping control of the grain and
provision market, but also for being at times the leader in the
current speculation in Wall street.





The work of reconstructing New York city keeps right on, for in
addition to the new houses in every street of any size can be seen
the tearing away of old landmarks, to be replaced in time by struct¬
ures more worthy the city. But should not something be done to
prevent the interruption to city travel by reason of new construc¬
tion in business streets ? There ought to be an ordinance prevent¬
ing the tearing down or building of houses during business hours.
Night has been abolished, so far as building is concerned, by the
new illuminants, especially the electric light, and there is no rea¬
son why new construction should not be conflned to the hours
between sunset and sunrise. Of course this would not be necessary
in streets where there is little business transacted, but great avenues
like Broadway should not be the scene of interruption during busi¬
ness hours.





The Democrats will try to push through the Morrison revised
tariff bill, but there does not seem much likelihood of an indorse¬
ment by Congress of any measure reducing the imposts on foreign
products. Despite our present tariff, importations are now so large
as to threaten to drain us of gold, unless'we can] get better prices
for our agricultural products. But the gold unit injures us in every
way. It marks down the price of our cotton, grain, provisions and
petroleum, and it has so cheapened foreign goods °as to enable
European manufacturers to undersell American goods in their home
markets; hence there will be bitter opposition to any scheme reduc¬
ing impost charges. Congress ought, however, to enlarge the free-
list, cut down some exorbitant duties, relieve our tariff laws of
ambiguity, and correct our Custom House methods, so as to prevent
litigation. But reducing duties in a wholesale way at this time
would not be tolerated by the country.





How absurd is all this vaporing about the fishery disputes with
Canada. As a nation we are handicapped, as we are without a
navy and our coasts are defenseless. Secretary Bayard must
speak with bated breath, for he knows that England can afford to
be insolent, and that as a nation we are at her mercy, because of
the stolid stupidity of the majority in Congress who mistake poten¬
tial for actual military and naval power. Canada can well afford
to seize our fishing vessels and plunder our seamen. We must
pocket all such humiliations because of our impotence as a naval
power. It would take us five years to get into a state of reasonable
security, provided we commenced right away, for we have neither
ships, guns, or a system of fortifications. The Holmans and
Randalls in Congress will not allow us to commence the necessary
work. Nothing short of a national calamity wiU rouse the Ameri¬
can people from the fools' paradise they are now living in.





There is reason to belive that work on the Hudson River tunnel,
will soon be recommenced. According to a very credible rumor,
the New York Central, the Pennsylvania Central and other roads
who bring freight and passengers to the New Jersey river front
have joined hands to help forward this enterprise. Io is said land
has been bought commanding the approaches to the tunnel on the
Jersey shore. Were this great work completed it would rank next
to the Broadway Arcade in helping to build up the metropolis.
Naturally a great deal of the business now carried on on the Jersey
shore will be transferred to this island, for all the companies com¬
ing from the West could not afford to depend on ferries if rival
corporations could haul their freight and passengers right into the
heart of this island. Of course the present terminals on the Jersey
shore would probably remain where they are, from which could be
shipped much of the heavy freight that come from the West, but
passenger and lighter freight would of necessity be brought to this
city by way of this tunnel.





In response to requests from many subscribers we publish else¬
where the text of the supplemental act amending the charter of the
Broadway Underground road and now known as the Arcade. A
perusal of its provisions, as passed by the Legislature and signed by
the Governor, may serve to remove certain impressions touching
the exact powers of the company under the charter. Some very
respectable gentlemen, property-holders on Broadway aud Madison
avenue, have issued a call for a meeting on Monday next to raise a
fund to, if possible, nullify this charter in the courts. The Record
AND Guide, while it respects these gentlemen, does not sympathize
with the object they have in view. We have always believed that
the creation of another street eighteen feet below the present
surface of Broadway would be a benefit not only to the city but to
the property-holders. It will add, we believe, very largely to the
value of their holdings. This matter has been before the com¬
munity for several years and the project is very generally approved.
It is to be hoped that the property-holders who object will not
throw away their money by using the courts to postpone the.begin-





'' Sir Oracle " seems to think that the police of our large cities
are over-zealous in their efforts to crush out the Anarchists and
murderous cranks to whom so much, attention has been directed
lately by the press in connection with the labor strikes. If public
meetings are to be suppressed, he thinks ought to be done by due
process of law, and that it is unsafe to lodge the power to disperse
peaceable meetings because the orators wag their tongues so loosely
as to become objects of popular dislike. If we wish to imitate the
methods of foreign governments in forcibly stopping the expres¬
sion of revolutionary opinions let it be done, he sa>s, by the enact¬
ment of properly framed laws. Our police captains are hardly the
kind of persons to fill, satisfactorily, the position of censors, with
the right to break skulls as well as disperse meetings at their own
sweet will. This is a view of the case which has the merit of
novelty at least, but the public feeling is so justly incensed against
the Anarchists that " Sir Oracle's" protests against what he seems
to think the oflaciousness of the police is not likely to be much
heeded.





The oflBcers of the American Jockey Club will probably agree
with "Sir Oracle "that the police are exceptionally zealous in
enforcing the anti-betting laws at their race courses. Judge
Munson and others complain bitterly of the remissness of the police
captains in not providing a sufficient force to guard the entrances
and to suppress disorder, while at the same time swarms of police¬
men in citizens clothes were employed as detectives to arrest
persons who svere caught surreptitiously betting on the races. In
this connection ex-Governor Dorsheimer, in the Star, makes the
following striking remarks :

The police are busy enforcing the odious law against betting on race
courses. It is usual to say that all laws should be enforced. But there are
many laws passed in ignorance, or in the spirit of intolerance, which have
been permitted to fall into disuse. This particular law is one of the worst
now remaining on om: statute books. It is a senseless and impertinent
interference with individual conduct.     It was passed for the purpose of