Aprfl 80, 1892





Record   and   Guîde.





679





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'S^





\             ESTABUSHED*^ WAJICH Z\'^ 1868.





De/oTED ÎO f\EAC ESWE , SuiLOIf/G ApcKlTECTJl^E .KobSEXOLD DEG0fV.nOÍÍ.
BaSir/ESS AttoTHEMES Of ŨeKeI^I 1^T£1\ESÎ

PRICE, PER YEAR I\ IDTAIVCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Published every Saturdag.

TeLEPHONI    ....   CORTLANDT 1370.

Communicationa ehould be addressed to

C. W. SWEET,  14 &  i6 Vesey St.

J. 7. LINDSEY, Business Manager.

"Entered at the Post-offlce at New Tork, K. F., as second-class matter."





VoL. XLIX,





APRIL  80,  1893.





No. 1,259





ANUMBER of gentlemen whose business and calling is specu-
lation became so very bearish on the stock market that a
stronger number of gentlemen following the same business and
calling concluded that some money could be made by what is
known as putting up prices on the shorts, hence the market
recovered in the latter part of the week the losses recorded up to
the middle of the week, and displayed wonderful strength in spite
of very largegold shipments. With no apparent inciting cause of
a bull movement the probability is that the strength so displayed
wiU be of short duration. The Coalers not unnaturally continue to
show strength under the stimulus of increased prices and corre-
spondingly estimated increased profitg. Western Union is confi-
dently spoken of as an advancing security. A few stocks left out
of the calculation, the extent of a movement depends, in a market
so distinctly professional, on the preponderance of long and short
contracts for the time being. So far as the public is concerned it
Í8 more a seller than a buyer. The improvement already noted in
iron and cotton, though of very slow growth, continuesand affords
some encouragement.





THE Austrian and Hungarian Finance Ministers have recently
come to a decision concerning the methods to be used in
obtaining the gold necessary for a resumption of specie payments.
If ít is assumed ihat 300,000,000 floríns will be necessary, Austria
wiU have to íumish about 300,000,000 and Hungary aboufc 100,000,-
000. The Hungarian Finance Minister has already collected about
50,000,000 florins in'gold, purchased in the international money
market and deposited in different banks, and will not therefore
require more than 50,000,000 for his share. jiccording to
a well-informed newspaper correspondent, he expects
to obtain this sum with ease by undertaking a con-
version of outstanding loaus. The Hungarian Government
has long intended, but has postponed on account of the currency
reform, the conversion of the 5 per cent Note Rente and of a
number of shares and debenturerf of the State railways—all by
means of one loan of about 500,000,000 florins. As the interest
wiU be somewhat reduced, it will be possible to make the amount
of the loan a little larger than the total amount of the stocks and
bond? which are to beconverted; and Hungary would thus be able
to defray the cost of the currency reform without a sacrifice.
It is probable that Austria will adopt the same system,
as it also owns a convertible debt of 600,0(,0,000. In
Berlin there has been a certain revival of activity,
during the last [few weeks, and operators in that city seem
to think that the low-water mark has been reached. But the busi-
ness conditions of the country offer nothing to warrant any sus-
tained upward movement. The possibility that negotiations are
under way for a commercial treaty between Russia and Germany
are admitted. Germany has never concealed her wish to arrire at
an advantageous tariff understanding with Russia. The opposition
to the project arises from a distrusc in Russia's sincerity and from
political considerations.





"TT is well that the Sinking Fund Commissionera have authorized
-*- the purchase by the city of the land partly under water front-
ing on Riverside Park, between 72d and 129th streets. The inter-
ests of Riverside Drive and of the pleasantest parts of the West Side
demand that the water front property should be owned by the city
80 as to prevent its perversion to uses which would injure the park,
and hence the whole contiguous district. At a very large cost the
city has purchased the property down to the water front, laid it
out as a park and as a very beautiful drive. On the basis of these
improvements a great deal of money has been invested in property





thereabouts. The city has a drive and a park of which it may well
be proud, yet if the property on the water'front and the land unrter
water should be used for tenements, docks or any purpose which
would bring into being unsightly structures and an undesirable
population, all this money would practically be thrown away. The
drive and 'the park would remain, but the aspect would be dis-
figured, the pleasant grass plots and the wooded slopes would be
overrun by dirty children, and the property fronting on the dri\-e
would cease to be desirable for handsome residences. It would be
simply an inexcusable piece of folly to permit the water front to
be so perverted. Riverside Drive has not been extensively
improved as yet, becausejthe West Side "L" road is so
far ofl that people who do not own ^''carriages hesitate to
commit' themselves to the necessity of such a walk whenever
they wjsh to get down town; but when the new West Side
route is constructed, it wiU not be many years before the drive'^will
be improved from one end to the other—that is, provided the park
has not in the meantime been menaced by tenements or docks.
The action of the Sinking Fund Commissioners has removed all
fear of the former; but there is stiU danger that the Dock Commis-
sioners will want to use the water front for business purposes.
This would have been even worse for the interests of Riverside
Drive and West End avenue than the buildingof tenements. Atthe
meeting of the commissioners ComptroUer Myers pointed out that
these docks could be builD only at an enormous expense, because
of the lack of approaches. It is safe to say, however, that i£ the
docks ever were buUt there would be a continuous demand for new
approaches in order to accommodate the traffic, and that would
mean the utter disfigurement of Riverside Park. It will be a sin if
this park [and drive are not preserved in their present integrity,
We have perverted enough of the natural opportunities of this
city. New York possesses more of them than any municipalty o£
equal size in the world, and if her citizens have the slightest pride
in putting these opportunities to public uses as pleasure-grounda
they ought to resist strenuously any unwise attempts to degrade
the places in which these opportunities have already been put to
some use.





THE Record and Gøide pointeJ out in its last issue that as a
result of the bill exempting Madison avenue from use for
rapid transit purposes the whole East Side line as laid out by the
commission would have to be abandoned. This is good in so far aa
it permits the commission to go ahead vigorously with the more
important Wesc Side route, but it is somewhat hard upon the
property-owners who would be benefited by the East Side line that
their interests should be for the time being utterly neglected.
They are in as much, if not more, need of rapid trnnsit tnan their
West Side brethren. Notice how badly provided with transit
facility is all that property along ^5th and Madison avenues and
along the side streets east of the Central Park. The nearest
elevated road is the 3d avenue line, whose stations are far apart
and whose trains are crowded. The residents of the southern
part of the district can take the 6th avenue line at 58th street, but
north of about î:5th street this resource is unavailable. The con-
sequence is that no improvements are undertaken in this vicinity,
It is also very desirable that existing residents east of 5th avenue
and west of Lexington avenue should have better facilities than
those provided by the 3d avenue line. But, as we have pointed
out, the needs of this district have been put aside for a period
that may last several years—will last several years unless
the people and property-owners affected bestir themselves
to obtain the needed relief. The commissioners are so tied
up that they cannot very well move unless they are forced to
do so. They are forbidden, and rightly forbidden, to use Madison
avenue ; and it is safe to say that they could not sell any Lexington
avenue franchise. The only available avenue is 4th avenue, which
is alieady occupied by a Vanderbilt corporation, and which cannot
be touched under present laws. What, then, can the commissioners
do ? They have no power to negotiate with the Harlem, the Cen-
tral, or any other corporation, and the managers of tho Vanderbilt
roads are evidently not inclined to take the initiative. Yet, obvi-
ously, the Central, the New Haven and the Harlem roads need for
their suburban business just what the commissionerscangivethem,
viz., a southern extension to some point near the City Hall, while
the commissioners need, in order to fulflll theLr appointed task, an
avenue east of the Central Park which can be made available for
rapid transit—just what these corporations possess. We presume
that the Legislature wiU have to be called in for the purpose o£
completing an agreement between these manifestly supplemencary
interests ; and i£ the East Side residents and propeity-owners know
wherein their opportunities for alleviation and development con-
sist, they will at once begin an agitation to bring about such a
result. One thing, however, should be added. An East Side line,
in order to fulfill its function, should be entirely divorced from the
West Side line. Instead of merging into the Broadway route at
Union square, it must run down 4th avenue, Lafayette place, to
Elm street, which will be widenedforthatandotherpurposes,  The