December ii, 1897.





Record and Guide





'■^^3







strike in the eiigineering liraneti, there Is considerable activity,
and prices ai'e well maintained.





DníriED 10 RpV.E:sTíaE,BiiiLDiKũ AFíCJ^ni:cTiní.E.HoiiSEtíoiiíDEQaíîAiiũíí.
BUsnÍESs a^ídThemes of GeĩíeraI 1;Jter,esi.
PRICE     PER   YEAR     IN   ADVANCE    SIX   DOLLARS

Fitbtishc<l every Salurday

TKLEPHONE,            ....            OORrLANDT   1370.

Communicatious shouid be addressed to

C. W. SWBET, 14-lG Vesey Street.

J 1. LINDSEY, Biisiness Manager.

••Eiilered al tke Posl Offlce <it New York, N. Y., as scconil-rlnss miiíU-r.-





Vol.   LX.





DECEMBEK   11,   1897.





No.  1.552





■T T T ALL STREET iĩeeps active, tliough there is already dia-

V V     appointment, refiected in the qnotations, that Congress

has not shown a disposition to deal with the cnrrency and rail-

way pooling questions.     This discoutent ĩs som^what hasty and

still more nnreasonable.     The serious  bnsiness of tiie session

is rarely entered upon until after the Christmas holidays;  and

even if Congress fails to apply legislative remedies for financial

and commercial troubles, the fact tliat it is disposed to guietnde

on some very dangerons topics leaves us soraething to be thank-

fĩil for, especiãlly in view of the fears that have been aroused

for some months of jingoistic antics which were to set several

nations by the ears.     If, however, speculation is not quite as

buoyant as some wish it to be, there is sufiicient change in this

line to   be  worthy  of  remark.      Commissiou  houses  that  for

months were deserted have now a lively appearance, indicating

án interest by outsiders in the niarket. which conclusion is also

supported by the volunie of the daiĩy ti'ansactions, for it may be

taken as positive and certain that professional manipiilation can

never roil lip totals of three, four and five hundred thousand

shares a day.    ĩnvestment buying, which is only partially indi-

cated by the Stock Exchange reports, continues to be quite Iarg>

and promises to extend well into next year, when au immense

amount of capital, including the Union Pacific payments, will

want re-ĩnvestment.    This buying might be spread more with

advantage to buyers, who favor too much a limited line of

issues, with thé result that they accept poorer returns than they

'need to do if they will only examine the list a little more care-

fully for bargains.    The railroads as a whole are making excel-

lent showings of earnings, and the reports that come from the

several trade centres are aimost without exception in a cheerful

key.

-----------------1----------------

POLITICAL questions áre never settled; they are only tem-
porarily disposed of from time to time by the introductîon
of neW complications.     The Eastern question, as it reĩates to
Turkey for instance, has taken on a new phase by the seeming
agreement between Austria and Russia on their several courses
and spheres of action to maintain the integrity of the Turkish
Empire, and at the same time compel the Sultan to move in the
direction  of humane  government.     Tlie  same  question,  as  ĩt
relates to China, is re-opened by the seventeenth century policy
of piracy begun by Gevmany, and while tiiei'e is a possibility of
its momentary settlement by the abandonment of the raided ter-
ritory for one granted under compulsion, there may be interven-
tion from other powers with a mutually agreeable programme
of letting  no  one in   but  themselves.      Another  international
question that, though seemingly so, is by no means disposed of is
the question of bimetalĩism.     President McKinley's statement
that correspondence was going on on this subject was preceded
by an important speech by M. Meline, the Prench Premier, refer-
ring to the recent negotiations with Britain, which contained the
foilowing:     "We did not propose the re-establishment of the
free coinage of siiver, which did not appear to us indispensable.
We conflned ourselves to demanding an ensemble of measures of
a'nature to restore that ratio, and put an end to the monetary
anarchy that exists in the world and eauses so great a disturb-
ance in international trade.      *      *      *      i am convinced that
a day will come when, from the force of events, Eui'opean nations
will examine the question and apply a solution."    The Europeau
exchanges are full of eompĩaints of absence bf speculation and of
falling off ín business.     The foreign trade reports nearly all
indicate declines in general activity, but the crop reports are sat-
isfactory, those of Britain beîng especially so.    Americans and
Argentines are the only securities at all active on the boUrses,
with shares of electrical industries added for Berlin.    Of all the
trades, the íron trade seems to be in the niost satisfactory eondl-
tion; even in Bngland, ĩiotwithstandîng the continuation of tlie





THE   ENGINEERS'  HOUSE

THE new building for the American Society of Civil Engl-
neers is a noteworthy addition to the archítecture oE West
Fifty-seventh street. Lilte most of our "architecturesque" streets,
that thoroughfare has more the air of an architeeturarmuseum
than of a street. It derives this air not onĩy frora the number
and variety of styles, of wĩiich it presents more or less faitbful
examples, but also from the obstinate non-conformity of tlie
architects to what has been done by their predecessors. It seéms
as if they held that their artistie originalîty might be compro-
misei:i, ĩf not their personaĩ indepencience, by paying any atten-
tion to what had been done before, and trying to produce an
ensemble instead of a eonspicuous object, wbich is ouly not an
exception because there is no rule.

It must be owned tliat, even if a designer were bent ũpon con-
formity, lie would experience diffĩculty in West Fifty-seventh
street in linding anything to which to conform. The biggest
building in the street is an apartment house in rough brown
stoue, which has no arcliitectural character whatever, and be-
trays no evidences of design. At least this is the biggest excepL-
ing Carnegie Hail, which was a coherent, feasible and impressivo
structui-e, before the steel frame enabled the owners to make
utilitarian additicns to ĩt, sincs which it does not even conform
to itself. From that cdifice eastward the street has a_eharacter
on one side of dismal monotony and on the other of a rather
freakish heterogeneousness.

Mr. U. L. W. Eidlitz, the arehitect of the new home of the
Society of Civil Engineers. took the best course that was open to
him in choosiiig the raost respectabie piece of architecture in the
neighbcrhood, and making his work conform to it ĩn style.
That building is undoubtedly the Fine Arts Buiĩding, iwhieh 's
almost dii'eetly opposite the new ediflce, and which is a careful
and generaljy successful study in French architecture of the time
of Francis I.—being in faet an amplification of the so-called
house of Fraucis I. in Paris, with the enforced substitutĩoh of a
ground fíoor pierced with many openiugs for tlie solid terraee on
whieh the original stands, and the voluntary addition bf a roof
to the robfless origiual, although this roof is pretty pláihly
either too important or not important enough.

The new building is arehitecturally only a street frônt of 50

feet in extent and four stories in height.     Practically its re-

o_uirements are mainly a library and an assembly room, with

incidental ofiîees and what, for want of a better name, is called a

lounging room, though the building is evidently designed not at

all for the uses of a club, but for the professional purposes of a

professional  associatîon.    This  lounging  room  and  the  larger

meeting roora are in the partly detached building at the réar,

the former below and the latter above the level of the groiind

floor.    The ofiîces and cĩepcndencies oceupy the two lower stories

of the main building, leaving the third and fourth for the library,

the lower for the reading room and the npper for the book stack.

Ou the exterisr this aiTangement works out very natu'r'ally

into the executed front, of whieh the baseraeut is in Indiana

stone  and   the  superstructure  in  white   brick.      Whether   the

French Renaĩssance ĩn which it is designed was adopted or not

in  deference to the existing Pine Arts Buiiding opTosite, the

conformîty  is  an  instance  of comity  all    the   pleasaritér   for

being unusual, and each building helps the éffêcfof th'e otĩier.

Tbe líasement of the engineers' house is in Indiáua limestúne,

which raaterial is used also in the wrought work of the super-

strueture against a flekl of nearly white brick. The combination

is effective, and has the advantage of giving effective relief ând

detachment to  the  carved  ornament.    The  basemeilt  is  p!ain,

with simply moulded openings, of which the central ône, the

doorway. is furnished with what is in effeet a Tudor dripstdne,

although iu fact the pendants are coi-belled pilasters.    The cove

of the jarab is deep and emphatie and is decorated wkh croehets,

and the whole doorway stands in a plane somewhat projected

so as to aecount for the projected central featiire Fbove.    This

is the main æotive of the desîgn.     In the secoud story a cano-

pied ogee arch sui'mounts an openíng rather deeply splayetJ.

with  the  cove  decorated  in  the  same  manner  as  that of the

doorway, and flanked by pilasters, decorated on their faces with

ornament in higb relief.    The tympanum of the arch above the

square headed window is fiiled with ornaments likĩwise boldĩy

designed and cut and in high relieL    The flanking piĩasters are

erowned  with pinnacles.  and the central  feature  is continued

into the story above by a band of ornaments framing its broad

window.    An araple wall-space on each side of this central feat-

ure enhances its vahie.     The broad pier is pierced only with a

singĩe ratber "navrow opening oĩi; ^ach^ side.; ip thG Becpnd story