Oclobera, 1894





Record   and   Guide.





461





^<?S;





EST^SUSHro-^ MARpH2pi^ ..--'8.
De/oTED to KlKl EISTJME. BuiLDlf/G \RcKlTEeTUnE.HoUSEHu.''DEQORATlorf,

BusiiiESS Alto Themes OF GEifeRAL iKtEf^Esi.

PRICE,   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE,   SIX   DOLLAK?

Published every Saturday.

Tklei'mo-ne,......Cortlandt 1370

eommunioations should bo addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.
J, 1. LINDSF.Y. Business Manager.

BuooiiLYX Offick, 27G-2S-2 Wasiungto.n l^fiiBKr,

On-. Post Office.

" Entered al Ihe Posl-ofliee (d Xew Tork. N^. T., as second-class mailer."





Vol. liv.





OCTOBER (J, 1S94.





No. 1,886





For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Deparlment immediately
following Xew Jersey records ipaiic ib3'i.

I) ECENT' events have shown that the time is past tor getting.-
*- tip scares ill the stock market. AVhi'u things are on the
mend as they nnw uniloiibteilly are. tliere is a very good reason
indeed for liolding on to seeudties, whicii must inevitahiy prolil
in iiroportiini us iMtsioesK enlarges or iinproye.s. Tliis the late
bears are tiiiding; nut to tlieir eost. Thanks to their exertions.
prices are taking nn npwai\i direction. The movement is purely
speculative, however, because, while it is impossible to force
holders to part with stock.s at prices prevailing fov some time,
the outside buying is very small. Proi'essioDal sliorts can con¬
gratulate themselves that this is so, becau.se if there was a ci*ni-
binatioii of stubborn holder.s anrt a new lot of bnyiii.g' in
commission hoii,--es, the advance would be mnch more rapid than
it is. For the same reason the dimensions of the adva.nce jnst
beguu will be moderate. Stocks only discount the improvement
made from time to time in the properties whicli they repre.sen(,
nnd while tliis is the best kind of a inovemeut for permaueuce
that can be hnd. it is slow and atl'ects the list irregiilarl.v. The
.-Vugu.?t aud September records of railroad earnings afford con •
siderable encouragement to the holders of railroad securities,
and are likely to cause buying of low-priced bonds, particularly'
of properties, that have lieeu able to keep out of
receivers' hand,'; up to this time. It is to be regretted
ihat so little progress is being made toward restoring bank-
nipt properties to good standing. This is due to a want of
grasp of what is necessary. The suggestion of the governmeut
directors op I'nion Pacilic is a rase in poiut. It throws the
.iunior securities iuto the worst position they could be iu, aud
therefore excites opposition. Nothing could be more crude than
to base reorganization uu lixed charges limited to net eaniing,s
in a year of unparalleled losses, e.-'pecially iu proposiug to
give all such nel earuiugs to the prior bonds. This
was the fault \Wth the defunct Alchison plau, and is
apparent in tin? present Heading plau. These plans suggest
that their makers were either to<) iiicompetentor too lazy to take
up and carefnlly eousider all the facts iu the case; to secure
coue;:Ssiuiis hei'e or there as the resuitof the iuvestifiatiou uiight
warrant, as wa^ done ill the ciisf, of the UicJiiiiond Terminal,
iiud found tlie easiest way to get rid of a burden-some (ask was
to throw il upon shot,Ideis least able to resent its imposition.
Thi.s idea is utterly uiisrieiititic and will uot do: uutil auother
is adopted reorgaui/alions will have Io watt. 'J'rading circles
are luddiiig ilicir in\ 11, wliieii entiiiot bo enlled unsatisfactory,
ard llicre ;i)ip(-nr here and llierc rcliubilitatioiis and uew eom-
biuatiiius wliieh iirove thai thiugs are better below the surface
thau upon il.





IpN'liL.VN'P and France manage very nicely to maiutaiu a
-J condiliou of aclive diiilomatic aiitagouisni, the .sparring
taking place in a very large ring. It began in Egypt—if it may
he said to have beguu at any period later lliaii the time ol Will¬
iam the Xormau—was carried to Tonquio, tlieuce to Madagascar,
rau over to Eiiuaiorial .Vl'iica, Siam aud East Africa. The com¬
batants have uow got lo Madagascar again. Where the iightiug
willbe next il ia hard to say, butit is not jirobablc tliat any-
tliing more murderous than ink aud paper will be the weapons
employed now in this everlastiug duel. Newspaper corre¬
spondents have uow tlte un fortunate condition of tbe-
health of the Czar of Kn.ssia to work with for makiug
new type-com plications lietweeu Ihe various nations of
of Europe, the only result of which will be some speculative
inovemcuts in 'i;overiinieii(. securities, Bourse movements in
Herlin and \ienna lia\'c indicat. d n retnru id' buyers iulo llu'
market, wliilc ill other great speculative centres there is dull¬
ness without weakness. .Mail trade advices, both from Great
Britain aud the Contiueut, indicate .some further improvement





iu business, supported b.v the returns of railroad earuings,
though continued low prices are generally bewailed. The
smaller governments are i till industriou,sly eudeavoring to pet
their hou.«;es in order. For instance, the Argentine Republic
proposes to take up the provincial debt aud clear the way for a
new state of things ; but while the motive is much to be com-
meuded, it is feared that the load is too great to
lift, at the preseut time at auy rate. Tlie governmeut of New
Zealand has decided to rai.so a large amouut of uioney to aid
fanning iuterests, besides assistiug the State banks. The Cape
Colony, wliich has had a fortunate absence of notoriety iu the
last few year.s, is issuing a new loan. Revised goverumenfc
retuins of the French wheat crop reduce the lu'eviotis estimate
hy about 32,000,000 bushels and the total (o the requirements
i'or home con.suuiptiou. It goe,-; without saying that the banks
across the Atlantic are gorged with idle mouey, tbat the
directors prefer to keep iu their vaults rather tban iu securities,
which might reasouably be exiiected to make some return ; such
a policy can only bt! due to a belief that a demand for tlieso
funds may spring up at any time within a reasonably near
future, or that their employment iu the puicliase of sueh high-
class securities as the banks would be restricted to would raise
prices so unich that they could uot realize again except at a con¬
siderable loss.





An Irrepressible Conflict.

Sl'KELY, eveu those who object to any legal restriction being
placed u]iou tb(^ freedom nf the citizen to erect upou the
iiighways wliafever style of bnilding pleaseth him most, will feel
compelled to acknowledge that the unrestrained independence
he believes in has deprived the city of stmie of the advantages
of au unusual architectural oppovlunity which presentetl itself
recently at the northwest corner of Broadway aud Murray street.
Ou that site, it will In^ recalletl, now stand, side by side, iu un-
iisna.l pvouiiuence, two most important additions to thiu'apidly
increasiug list of Xew York's " sky-.scrapers"—the ?Iome Life
Insurance Coin])aiiy's building and the headquarters of the
Po.st.1.1 Telegraph Compauy. Were these edifices less iu evi-
deuee. or were the gi'eafer part of them hidden by their owu
altitude, as the npperstoiies of so many of our lofty btiil-liugs
are iu the canyon-like streets dowu-towu, the lost oi)portuuity
we sjieak of would be less regretable; but those two structures
possess the rare distinction of faehig a prospect ample enough
to render their great height a positive architectmal advantage.

Tt uever linppeued before, sinee the begiuuiug of the very
high buildiug era, that two wealthy corporations decided to con¬
struct ou coutiguou.s idots, nt practically the same momeiil.
edilices of similar type aud of about the same altitude. The
Broadway frontage takeu for the bnildiugs is 125 feet, aud
I he mere xtossibilily of deaiiug witb a fourteen or flfteeu-story
structure of such exceptional horizontal dimensions stirs the
architectural imagiaatioii, cramped somewhat as it is by the re-
strietious of the bean-stalk problem of piling masonry to the
height oi' l-"><' feet upon on<'., or, at most two, city lots. To cast,
away a chance like that we sjieak of has, for the artistically
minded, .sometbing of the character of vice. Sad to say, how¬
ever, the siu was tlagrantly aud eveu obtrusively committed.
lustead of a ba.])py opportunity seized upou in the iuterest of
art, we lune au eKample u\' riotous freedom. .Vud wheu we
have such abundant evidence a.ll over tlu^ city of our rampant
individualism iu architectlue, surely in tin's case one is per-
milted to demand a slight concession t<i art without being
chargeable with requiring too much ou behalf of "geueral con-.
.siilerations." Slight the concession need have been to insure a,
very gratifying architect ural result. The fact thai two eompauies
were concerned in llie eutei')irise, and that each I'Oi'jioratioii dCr
sired tn employ an uichilect nf ils own chooKiug, were iiotinsiir--
moiinlable obstacles to concerted action ; or if concerted action
be too much to require, surely, without entailing any real sacri-:
fice, joiut effort might have beeu made to procure two desigu«
liarmonizing one wifh the other. But uo tinickiug coucessiou to
iiilistic cd'eet marks the actual outcome ot these c<nporate en¬
terprises. The two buildiugs war violently with one nutdher,
nud fhe pity is, the strife is one time can not mitigate.
Tlie two designs are antagonistic not in spirit only, but even (he
materiiils selected iu eaeh case were chosen apparently upou the
jiritieiple of opposition. One would .say, were uot the idea un¬
warranted, that th<i architecis id' the two buildings were bitter
rivals aud desired to declare publicly, b.y their wm-ks, that po.si-
lively uo coniieetion existed witii the "sho)) next door."

So loud is the autiigoui^iu between the buddings that eveu the
nuiuitiated view theiu comparatively. Prnbably uo other two
edilices iu the city luive been subjected to so mueh po]Hilar ooni-
parisou. We have uo iutention lo join in the process here. If
we speak of »lift'ercuces, it is only to emphasize I hi' unfnrdiuate
discord between the desigu.s.

The architeetual merits of the two structures are as di.-isinular
as are their respeclive defects. The emphatic character of the
Home Tjife building is daintiness, which, in the treatiuont of.the