and   Guide.





551





;TiBTlSHED^WW<CH2li^^ IB6$/.





De/oTED to m- ESTATE , BuiLDIf/o AjlcrflTECTdl^E .iJoUSEUOU) DEGORATWH.

""\B.iL5I!iE5S Alto Themes Of GE^JER^L!;^TEl\EST

PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.

published every Saturday.
Telephone,           -          -          -          Cortlandt 1370.

Oonununications should te addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191   Broadway

J. T. LINDSEY, Busineas Martager.               ^______





Vol. XLYII





APRIL  11,  1891.





NOTICE OF REMOVAL.

The offlces of The Record and Guide ivill be removed fo Nos.
14 and 16 Vesej street, over The Mechanics' and Traders' Exchange,
on May lst.





OOME three months ago, when Wail street was just beginning to
1^    recover from the panic, we yclectecl and named a number of
bonds in good  standing, which  were then selling at prices much
under their intrinsic value, as measnrt^d by  all  ruling quotations
for older issues.    During January there was an advance in all the
issues then quoted, but in no case did that advance bring the price
of the bonds to the flgures justified by their returns and prospeots-
S'nce then many stocks have sold  at considerably  higher prices,
and a number of excellent new issues, undei- cnnservanVe reorgan¬
izations, are bringing flgures far lower iliati tlie returns tliey make
warrant,    and    out    of    all    prtiporLiou    to    tiie    comparative
prices   of   dividend-paying   stocks.    Tlie   last   number   of   tlie
"Investors'    Supplement"    of   tin;   Financial    Chronicle    cjlUs
attention to this fact, but iu terms wliich understate tlie real point
ol' tje situation.    " To point oui," it says, '■ that certain bonds are
selling at low prices  is not necessarily equivalent to saying tliat
they are  cheap.    Nothing is cheap to-day which will sell at lower
prices next week or next month: and in regard to securities of this
sort, the  main inquiry of investors iw  on the very point whether
they are now probably selling near their lowest figures."    The con¬
fusion of terms is palpable,    A speculator may, indeei', gamble on
the fugitive fluctuations of a stock or bond; but once convince an
investor that a bond is low-priced, aud it must be cheap for  his
purpose,      Wliat   he   wants    is    assured     income;   'and      this
remains    constant      through     any     advance     or    decline     in
raartet quotations.     It is  to this  class  in the  comniuiiily  that
the bond market just now  shoitld be attractive.    The  litlle boom
in stocks has no appearance of stability; and is seemingly rather
the result of luanipulation by insiders  than of  any return  of  the
public to Wall street—as may be gathered from   the very fact the
bond market has not been similarly affected.    It cannot  be  gain-
sayed that, taking the list through, bunds are cheaper than stocks,
and a legitimate and  h"althy bull   movement sbould  affect tliem
first.    Th» stock arguments for an advance  in  prices—the sustain¬
ing of rates, good  earnings,  fair crop prospects here, poor crop
prospects abroad—all apply  as  much to  tbe prospects of ,rail way
mortgages as to railway shares.    So unusual, in  our opinion, is the
opportunity no\/ offering to make good investments in bonds which
have suffered greatly in prices  since   the  Baring  failure .that we
may from time to time make such  selections frora the list as are
worthy   of   mention.     These   aie    the   times    when   the   Stock
Exchange offers better bargains than do banking liouses with new
issues to market.





which constituted an obstacle to the healthy development of the
various branches of the iron and steel manufacturing industry.
The future is threatened by a contemplated stnke of the colliers;
but if it comesj nobody will be taken by surprise, as was the case
two years ago, for all the employers have ample warning. In
Vienna the general attitude is described as one of satisfactory
expectation. Tho prices of stocks are favorably influenced by tbe
steady improvement of the monarchy's finances, which have been
practically free from deficit for tbe past few years. Another
influeuce, the effect of which favors higher prices, is the renewal
of the hope that the efforts to form a new commercial treaty with
the German Empire will, after all, be crowned with success.
The report of the Deutche Bank shows clearly that this insti-
tuticBi is heavily interested in Argentine securities, for
the hopeful opinions adtanced are scarcely justified by facts. The
bank, however, has not been injured in a direct way. The
Deutche Ubersee Bank in Buenos Ayres is-partner to the opera¬
tions of the Deutche Bank, and the troubles have forced this in¬
stitution to suspend its dividends and draw on its accumulated
reserves.





No. 1,204





THE foreign markets are at present featureless. This is par¬
ticulariy the case in London and Paris. Although the rates
for-money in these two centres have stiffened perceptibly, still
there is plenty of loanable capital, accompanied by an ind sposition
to speculate. Traffic reiurns on the English railways are slightly
larger than the figures of last year, and consequenily there has
been some activity and a small advance in that department, but
American railway shares merely respond mechanically to the New
York markets, and there is practically nothing doing in the other
departments. Pig iron quotalions ai-e weak, bnd the iron-masters
and blast-furnace men are asking their employes lo submit lo a
reduction of 12t^' per cent, in wages, but tho arrangement, at
last reports, was not consumnui-tcd. In France the stagnation
in bu^ines3 is reflected in thf conlrjicliKii of the circulation. The
contemplated changes in the laiill are apparenily prodncin<j whole¬
sale uncertainty. The Berlin mai'ket shows a t^light improvement
of prices, owing to the brighter ptosprcts for the iron trade, both
in Germany and abroad. The Rhenish-WestphaJian Pig-iron Con-
viption bay? ^ecitleii fS a rjvisioo of Uie prj-ic, tho high idnge of





ON Monday last the Sun published a story to the effect that the
Vanderbiits were negotiating  with  Austin  Corbin  for the
purchase of the Long laland Kailroad Company.    The next day the
story was promptly denied by both of the parties to the supposed
negotiation,  and  the Sun  was  Eatisfied  to  state the fact of the
denial and refer vaguely to ." future facts" in its  possession, as if
those already  stated  had  been  substantiated  instead  of denied.
Stich is journalism.    It was, of course, to be expected,  no matter
whether the negotiations  were  or  were  not under way, that all
knowleiige of tbem would be repudiated.    A couple of days before
the announcement of the-lease of tbi Rome, Watertown & Ogden-
burg  by the  New  York Central,  a rumor to thiit effect was pub¬
lished, which Vice-President Walter Webb declared to be entirely
without foundation; and there is scarcely one important consolida
tion of the many consummated of late years, which has not trans¬
pired  in  advance only  to be met by the repudiation of insiders.
Such are railway managers.    What the truth of  this rumor may
be we do not pretend to kuow, for all sources of information  are
notoriously unreliable;   but it is, at all evemts, as plausible as the
many    which     have    preceded    it.        Certain     it     is     that
the Pennsylvania now gets no little west-bound tralTic from  Long
Island, which the Central, by proper management, ought to control;
and certain it is that sorae sort of an alliance hetween the Vander¬
biits and Austin Corbin would greatly simplify many difficult prob¬
lems connected with transit over, or rather  under, the East River.
Tlie Leary tunnel will bring the two systems into direct connection
and render possible the interchange of  a good deal of  traffic, and
they may meet at  other points also.    There can be little doubt, as
tbe Sun stated, but tbat the  Rapid Transit Commissioners will per¬
mit the Central to extend its tracks right through the heart of the
city, east of Bioadway to the  Battery ; neither can there be much
doubt that in case this is done the  Grand Central Depot will be
abolished, the main station transferred to Harlem, and 4th avenue
be left perfectly free for city rapid transit service.  The New Haven
tbe Harlem and the Central already reach so many important towns
in North New York and Westchester County tliat it is but right Iha
these corporations should be able to compete on equal terms for
traffic, originating  down town, with the New Jersey railroads.    I
this is aone another point of connection would be established with
the Long Island Railroad through its proposed tunnel from the foot
of Atlantic avenue, Brooklyn, to Whitehall street. New York.    Al
the same time it must be admitted that the interests of the two cor¬
porations are to some extent diverse, because both North New York
aud Long Island will be competing for-New York's overflow, and a

reconciliation will be difficult.

---------•---------

SENATE BILL No. 414 apparently has excited the builders of
this city. It provides that materials to be used in the con¬
struction or alteration of buildings shall be piled on the sidewalk
5 feet back from the street Une, and shall be inclosed with a feDce
10 feet high. The measure might be entitled, " an act to keep the
sidewalks in frontof buildings iu the course of erection open fo
pedestrians." Opposition must be due either to the existence cf
vicious details in the bill or to a denial that pedestrians have acy
right whatsoever to the sidewalks of the city. It must be acknowl
edged tbat in prictice some builders go very far towards makirg
thia denial, by appropriating for a material yard quite two-thirds
of the street in front of the buildings they are putting up, to say
notiiing of the wider area wherein debris and lime are scattered
by passing veiiicles, or blown by the wind ; but in theory
we do not beheve any builder will deny thit the public
is entitled to au unobstructed, clean passageway along
all the sidewalks of lhe city. Indeed, the brazen disregard
shown by individuals to the I'ights which the imblic possess in the
streets, is one of the greatest discomforts of life in New York.
Merchandise is piled on the sidewalks without even such an effort
to egODomige space aa ^ merchant would in£ist upon in hig owo