April 24, 1897.
Record and Guide
ilw6TiOpRp*^EsTAjE.BraLDijfe%^rrE(rrui\E.HousEaou>DD3a[(&iK^ ,
.BuiufeSB Alto Themes of GeiIer^V Irfre^T-;
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Published every Saturday,
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J. T. LINDSET, Business Manttger.
'Entered, al Ihs Post-office at New Tork, ^. T., as second'Class mailer."
Vol. LIX.
APRIL 24, 1897.
with uot less than eight sqnare feet af sui-face opening.upon
a street or open -coui-t, light .shaft or open air, and each having
at least eighty square foet of floor area aud at least ,600 enbic
feet of space tlierein. The dining-room is to have at least 300
square feet of floor art."a, «f]iich is uot bo be part of a bai--
room. By subjectiny all liotels to the i-equirements of the build;
ing laws or ordiuaiiee.s of the cities in which they are located,
a hotel defined !ty nue law eao uo longer stnicturally differ
from a hotel defined by another. The consequence is that the
saloons, which were convei'tetl into so-oalled hotels by cheap
and fliuL-iy rearmngements of interiors to make a legal <oui-
pliaucf witli tlie R.Tines Law, pas.sed last year, in order to obtain
ailvantages liclongiuir to hotels proper, must now conform tothe
ver.v pniper rtHpiirements;'of the building Ivaw.s. or surrender the
privilegiw they have improperly ol>taiued ;is "hotels." They can
nil longer avoiil the requirements for strength of floors, flreprof-
ing, nccorfling to lieight, and others equally important. It is un-,
derstood tha.t the Department ot Buildings will enforce the law.
and is organizing the necessary inspecting force as a preliminary
to caiTying out that purpose.
No. 1,519
A['"TElt partially rallying from the decline of last Saturday
iiuil Mouday, the Stock Market has become so extremely
dull and spiritless that it presents no feature worthy of remark.
Business in the rommission houses, which was active for tlie
two <ia.ys mentioned, Ums dropped to almost nothing, the little
ammation there is in quotations being almost wholly due to the
operarioUB of traders. The past week has ;igain shown the faith
of the moneyed public in railroad and other ot our securities,
beeati^e the recent bresik braught out no long stock from this
â– side, although there was considerable selling fixtiu Europe, from
the cau.ses to which we referred hist week. Business seems to
be everywhere done ou a model ate basis, the reports from the
dififerent tiude centres being very mild in tone as to current do¬
ings, Though the belief coutiuues that activity will increase ,as
time goes ou. Now aud then such assurances are received with
impatience. Still the situation .justifles them, though if busiuess
would only wake up and .justify the recording of more interest¬
ing filers everybody would no doubt be pleased, but until the
facts )hre.-;eut themselves, it would be dangerous to attempt to
record them.
G1;EECE must inevitably be beaten in the conflict ahe has
drawn upon herself; she has no resources either of meu
or money to, resist the power ^>f the nation opposed to her. and
already there are indications in the dispatches from Athens that
both King and people are beginning to repent theii' folly.
What The final result will be no one can say, but it is hardly
possible that Turkey will be aUowed to reassume dominion over
the country, ^^hat is probable aud what ought to be the case
is that fi-reece will change-iis king, if not the dynasty. The
country will find itself sutliciently punished in the burden of
debt it will have incuiTed and the deplenishment of its worlsing
force throitgli the loss of life occasioned by the war. Greece
beaten and powerless to longer oppose the plans of the Great
Powers for the settlement of Eastern difficulties, makes the po¬
litical siriiation, and consequently the commercial situation also,
much better. It is this view tiiat has .strengthened the liluropean
markets since the commencement of hostilities. Actual war
has diverted attention from the probabilities of war that exist in
South Africa, and which, if existing negotiations to pi-event an
outbreak should fail, will have far more effect upou the mai"-
kets than the Eastern trouble lias had. It is unlikely that the
crisis can be reached for some time, but until there are posi¬
tive assurances of improved feeling between the Transvaal and
its alien residents, Soiith Africa will be watched with interest
and anxiety. Not ouly would there be, iu tbe event of a resort
to arms by Great Britain and the Transvaal, the commercial dis¬
aster that would follow directly from that fact, but there would
always be, as long as the struggle la.sted, a fear that the sym¬
pathies of the German people with the Transvaal and their
ambition to assume the lead in colonizing South Africa, would
drag their government: iuto the fray, and thereby carry the war
into Europe. The fact that the British government has prepared
for unfavorable emergencies is the best argument that a satis¬
factory settlement of the questions in dispute will be found, but
in the temper of the Putch-Africans it is by no means ir¬
refutable.
THE structural r«quirementB of the Raines Law amend¬
ments relating to hotels are, first, that the laws, ordi¬
nances, rules and regulations pertaining to the building, fire and
health departments shall be fully complied with. Tlieu they go
ou to say that the bedrooms nccnpied by guests shall be sepa¬
rated by partitions at least, three inches thick, extending from
floor to celling with independent access to each room by a door
opening into a hallway, eacb room having a window, or windows
OXl.V a litrlt' pa.,ssing surprise was occasioned by the revela¬
tion that there had been tampering with a measure on
its way through the Ipgislatiire, so well is the public prepared
to hear of crookeil work in that body. A bill is suddenly found
to contain a provision never intended by it.s proposer, and dis¬
covery does not excite any indignation iu the mind of the public.
This obnoxious provision is expunged and that is all. This tacit
acquiescence in the corrupt methods of the legislature is posi¬
tively disgraceful, especially because it explains why sqch meth-.
ods are possible at all. The legislature is no more coiTupt to--
day than it has beeu before, nor more corrupt than it will be
hereafter, if the voting public continues to be so indifferent to'
its character. The very bill which it was sought to suiTepti-
tionsly pad with objectionable provisions was intrixluced this'
session to undo the injury done to the building industry by a
bill sneaked through last session i-educing the maximum height
of non-flreproof buildings in the city from eighty-flve to seventy
feet, and wliicli was passe<:l through some kind of undergi-ound,
legislative passage whose existence is known only to a few.
The bill's existence was not even suspected until it had passed
both houses, antl it was too late to oppose it. Owing to these
and similar irregularities no one to-day is in a position, to say
positively that any particular measure, however desirable or un¬
desirable, will or will not pass, or that any particular industry is
assured against adverse legislation. When the legislature has
ad,iourned and its work is rounded up to be sent to the mayors
of cities, ami to the Governor of the State for approval, it will
be possible to know definitely what has been done, but not be-.,
fore. We are afraid that matters have become so bad that all
who desire legislation, whether from good or bad motives, go to
the agents of corruption to get it. There are a few conscien¬
tious citizens who view such a state of things in its proper- light,
and with alami, but these are so few,while those who encoumge
and those who are indiffei'ent to it are so many, that the first
can do nothing. It has. positively got to be a question of who
shall investigate the legislature. Ready as that bocly has been
to appoint committees of investigation it cannot be expected to
investigate itself, and if it did, we kuow ouly too well the way
it would go about it. If there were anything like a decent public
opinion in the State, the legislature could at least be forced to
Iceep its ijonmals in a way that would enable the representatives
of the public, the newspaper correspondents, to keep an intelli¬
gent idea of what is being done; but there is no such public
opinion, and consequently business is conducted so as to best
assist the evil pi-actices goiug on. â– - â–
EVEN a cursory perusal of the arguments laid before Gov¬
ernor Black last IMonday for and against the acceptance
of the charter prepared for Greater New York by the gi'ace of. a
graceless legislature, would serve to show which side had the
stronger case. A careful reading would make it sui"prising that
such a document could evei- have passed a deliberative body, ex¬
cept for the political considerations supposed to underlie it The
eminently able and respectable delegation that went to Albany
to persuade the Governor to veto the bill providing for the gov¬
ernment of tbe consolidated city, came back satisfied that if
the matter was to be decided by reason, tbey would have suc¬
ceeded in their mission. It is not necessary to repeat the state¬
ments made by the several speakei*s, they have been given
to the public so fully by the daily pi-ess. Necessarily they in¬
cluded much that had been said before, but, taken as a whole,
they formed such a powerful collective condemnation of the
charter that they could not fail to convince. On the other hand,
the onl.y defenders of the charter were its principal fi-amers.
There was no public demanding through representatives to have
this governing machinery put upon them. General Tracy and Mr,