une 24,1898
Record and Guide.
©79
ESTABLISHED ^ N^CH £1"'
speculation which has been going on in other cities, and whicb is
always so roughly treated in times like the present.
PRICE, PER TEAR IK ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.
Published every Saturday.
TBLBPHONBI: . . . -
CommaulcatlonB should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET,
J. 2. LINDSEY, Business Manager,
COBTLAimT 1370.
14 &. 16 Vesey St.
^Entered at the Foat-oglce at New York, N. T., at second-class matter."
Vol. LI.
JUNE 24, 1898.
No. 1,319
WIIH the passing of a week the fioancial outlook haa not
improved. The Treasury announcement that it would
anticipate the date of payment of the July interest while practical
and timely has not had the expected result on stock market prices,
though it may be taken to have stayed somewhat and to some
degree have lessened the decline. Thia ia disappointing, especially
because it shows too plainly how unresponsive the market is to
good news because of the continued inforced liquidation. There is
no bear movement of any proportions worthy of consideration to
account for the decline. Among the disquieting influences of the
time Js tbe thought of what must become of silver under legisla¬
tion certain on this side of the Atlantic and highly probable on the
otber which will take from that metal its largest market. What will
become of the stocks on hand until reduced production shall have
offset the change of conditions now being effected on the market
for silver, and what influence will the disturbance of the silver mar¬
ket have on general trade? A large part cf the trouble in the
extreme West is due to gloomy anticipations in this line.
Railroad securities are now, in addition to the liquidation forced
by hard times, being affected by the expectation that the com¬
mercial disasters of the country will aoon tell on railroad earnings.
One bright spot in the situation is the proapect of the continuance
of foreign buying of grain to bring what is moat needed, money.
We have recently had a striking example of how quickly the
foreign trade balances can turn in our favor, and this is a fact
that should not now especially be lost sight of. A great many
people seem to think that we can have no change for the better
U'ltil matters have improved abroad, especially in England,
but those people apparently forget that in England and the large
European investing countries the money ia in greater proportion
than the bnsinees, while here the contrary is the fact, and that as
soon a nfidence can be induced to return we have business
enough not only for our own money, but for as much as can he
induced to come from our friends across the Atlantic.
JDDGE LAWRENCE'S decision concerning the College place
widening report is very unfortunate, very much to be
regretted, because its effect will probable be to postpone indefinitely
the much-needed improvement which it has been such uphill work
to bring to the condition which it was in when the Judge set it rolling
down again. This is to be regretted all the more because in the
.judgment of all real estate men the reasons which the Judge gives
for withholding his approval of the report cffered to him are not
valid. The Judge's decision, as published, certainly does not show
him to be very conversant with real estate matters. The whole
transaction, so far as tbe west side of College place is concerned,
is really a sort of double eale; and looked at in tbis way the
validity of the commissioners'action is apparent. Suppose Jones
owned, on the southwest comer of Chambers street and College
place, a plot 50 feet by ICO feet, that is 50 feet ou Chambers street
and 100 feet on College place. If tbe city bought the entire plot
for, let us say, $100,000 and extended College place over one of the
lots and then offered tho otber for sale at, say, $60,000, the pro¬
ceeding would not be considered very much out of the way, because
all would recognize that though the interior lot was worth, when
the property was bought by the city, perhaps not more than $40,000
the fact that the city had converted it from an inside to an outside
lot had added additional value to it. A purchaser would be willing
to pay the city the enhanced value. Now, what difference is there if
instead of taking both lots the city takes only one and then, in assess¬
ing benefits, makes the holder of che second lot pay for the improve¬
ment made to his propertj'? In this way, we see, property on one side
of astreet may justly be verymuch more heavily assessed than prop¬
erty on the other side of the street if the latter remains precisely as
it was before the improvement was undertaken except that it fronts
now on a wider street. It ia at this that Judge Lawrence seems to
have balked. He does not see that there should be a debit as well
as a credit side to the account of the transaction, and that while the
city should pay in full for what it takes, it should in turn be paid
in full for what it gives. We trust there is some way to overcome
the effect of the Judge's decision.
T
IHE Institute of British Architects, one of the most conserva¬
tive of British institutions, has conferred its gold medal upon
our fellow-countryman, Mr. Ricbard M. Hunt. There is, of
course, always a great deal that is merely formal and perfunctory
about "honors" of this kind. They cannot be said to add any¬
thing very real to a recipient's renown, because, aa a rule, they
are the consequents of his reputation—an explicit recognition tbat
it is already firmly established and widely acknowledged. So
little is ever hazarded in conferring them 1 Still, there is alwaya
something particularly pleasant about a compliment that comes
from beyond one's own country. As with foreign merchandise,
there is the feeling that because it has traveled so far it is rarer,
and therefore more valuable than similar commodities obtained
at home, despite its intrinsic worth.
THE reports that come to ub about real estate elsewhere show
tbat the New York market is the only one wherein there is
anything that can be called a demand for real estate. Great dull¬
ness prevails in Boston and in Philadelphia, while out West, where
a few years ago there were so many "booms," everything is abso¬
lutely stagnant. In Chicago the bad times which have prevailed
for moie than a year past, have become intenser. Brokers are
doing nothing, and only this week one of the largest firms went
under, loaded with property which they could Lnot dispose of.
Curiously, and it is an example of bow far astray people's anticipa¬
tions often are, the World's Fair, instead of being a benefit to
Chicago real estate, has so far proved to be a great evil, with the
chances that worse is yet to come from it. As is well known, a
great mauy hotels and lodging houses were erected in anticipation
of the immense crowds which it was thought would surely visit
Chicago. So far the crowds bave uot arrived. Tbere is three or
four times as much accommodation as visitors require. At tbe
close of the Fair, if not before that event, a very large amount of
property is pretty certain to be thrown on the market to still further
depress it. Indeed, we are safe in saying that it will take perhaps
five years for the Chicago market to lecover fully from its present
condition. If it had not been for the slow liquidating process
which has been going on here and there in New York real estate,
for tbe last two or three years, the present difficulties would have
affected tbis market very much more than they have. Of course,
we are not yet out of the woods, and real estate would suffer like
every other commodity in any general commercial catastrophe.
Still, real estate is nowhere in a better condition than it is in New
York to-day. Valuea undoubtedly cannot be considered low, but
the dullness within the last couple of years has weeded out a great
many of the weaker holders and put a stop to the extravagant
IT would be ungracious, however, to consider too curiously the
compliment which Mr. Hunt has received. Our purpose in speak¬
ing of it, except as a matter of pleasant information to Mr. Hunt's
many friends, is to point out tbat it may be regarded as something
more than either a personal tribute to the Nestor of the architect¬
ural profession in the United States or an act of opportune inter¬
national amenity occasioned by the World's Fair. Certainly, the
personal element was not without weight with the Institute. And
no doubt the appropriateness of the act to the mament suggested
the act. Still, over and above these considerations the compliment
is indicative of tho recognition, critical surely, and as yet dubious,
but nevertheless attentive, which American architectm-e is receiv-
. ing abroad. This is the point for the public.
H'
ERE at home we have not yet completely measured the im¬
mense progress that we have made in architecture
gince—as the exhibition is uppermost to-day—let us say the
Centennial. We need an indubiiable indication, such as the
action of the Institute, to prompt ua to an estimation of how
much we have accomplished in the last few years. In
1876, architecture in the United States was quite beyond
the purview of tbe Institute with its gold medal, and justly
so. In the judgment of Europe our architecture was a sort of
Apache treatment of the historical styles. Where we not weak, we
were barbarous. There was the expressionless brownstone front
where so little was hazarded and the cast-iron front where every
precedent and principle in architecture was "fired" without
compunction in the pot that fused the metal. It is a sign of how
amazingly quickly the mind of our people moves that both the
brownstone and the cast-iron front were discarded in a day, and
that whereas in 1876 there were few architects of repute that were
doing any work distinctively good, to-day there are few whose