Kovember 4, 1899.
RECORD AND GUIDE.
6^3
ESTABLISHED-^ a^ARpHai^'*^ 1868,
DEVÎiIeD to ReA.1. EsTAFE , SUlLDI^''o *;R.cKitecîJ[^E ,t(otJSEMOLIi DEGORATlorf.
BJsii^EssAitDThèmes 0FGE|iEi\ftl ir/TEHESi,
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE2iSIX DOLLARS.
PuMis/wd every Saturday.
Tblbphokb, Ooetlanet 1370.
Qom mu3 ica tlon s should be a,dilre«s«d t4 !
G. W. SWSBIT, 14-16 Vee«r StrMt.
I. 1. LINDHBY, Bmimsn Alanager.
"Entered al lhe Post-Opioe at Ntio York, S- Y., assec«nd-class matter."
Vol. LXIV.
NOVEMBER 4, 1S99.
No, 1051
THE si3eculative spiiit to which we alltided last weeK has had
full play in the stock market this, and mystery has been
found to possess its old-time charm iu bringing in huy-
ers. The market is really being scraped Eor suitable objects
for manipulatian, and it becomes a question what the
spéculative élément wtU do when they hâve put up all the
old discredited issues on the stock list. May-be they
will then tackle bonds, among which there are quite
a number of income and debenture issues, whieh deserve their
considération quite as much. as the low priced Industrials that
liave been the features of the week, some of them more so, In-
dred there are signs that opérations bave been begun in this
direction already, and that in a short time everything good, bad
and indiffèrent will hâve been advanced to a new plane of value,
That accomplished there must come a reaction, or a new move¬
ment to make another record of values beginning as before witli
sound Issues and working through the list agaln. Which of these
WiU be attempted will dépend upon a good many things, the re¬
sults of the electionnext Tuesday, the condition of gênerai busi¬
ness and the amount of capital available for spectilative uses.
Talk of another advance upon the top of those already seeu may
sound like nonsense, but values as they stand to-day are to no
small estent nonsense, and why not a little more of it. It has
always been the habit of the public in good times to put invest¬
ment values on securities based upon the temporary prosperity
of the properties on which they are predicted; and, being the
habit, it is as likely as ever to be followed now. This, in view of
the large manufacturing that is now going on, opens up a pros¬
pect for considérable advance yet, especially în the Industrial
issues. The natural reckoning will come later, but it is too far
ahead for the sight of the rank and file of the spéculative world,
The masses buy at inflated values, because they know nothing of
probabilities and averages, and the knowing gamble on their
shortsightedness and weakness. Of course it is ridiculous to ask
the world to be prudent, if tbey were there would be few panics,
wars or disasters of any kind; but if prudence were the card by
which people acted, présent values would, in most cases, suffice
for a year to come, and in some cases for a good many yeara to
come, W'all Street gets its activity from the belief fixed in many
minds that others will pull their chestnuts from the fire; but
thei'e is satisfaction in knowing that it is not always the eat that
'gets burnt.
SO far we hâve only half a storyof the war in South Afriea,
We hear of the British lossee and reverses, but we know
absolutely nothing of their cost to the Boers, beyond vague state¬
ments. Whîle the Boers are undoubtedly gaining, it is apparent
tbat their trium'phant march to the sea has been checked and
every day's delay makes the situation more serious for them.
ït tliey ean be held at bay for a few weeks longer the object of
their enemies wlll be gained. The success of the latter dépends
uot on the troops in the field, but on those on the way, and from
now on their forces will gain daily in strength and eventually
the ^cers will bave to reckon wiih a counter movement against
the Transvaal itself, These opérations will be more protracted,
however, than has been supposed, for we note from one of our
London exchanges, franktr than the others, that Gen. BuUer's
fuli command cannot be in the field before Christmas, and that
the War Office sets the second week in January as the eariiest
time that he can begin aggressive opérations in Natal, The im¬
portant question is whether, meantime, the Boers ean by their
fiuccess in the field, induce the Dutch, of the South African
colonies, to share their fortunes as well as sympathetically sup¬
port their cause. A few more trlumphs like those of this week
would détermine this question afflrm'atively. On the other side,
their conduct shows that the British bave lost none of their con¬
fidence in the final resuit, and in the interval are prepared for
almost any sacrifice, The markets reflect the mlsfortunes of the
battlefield, because the professional operator, even with the tear
Cf the patrict in his eye, will buy or sell according to the nature
of the latest rumor, but any loss seen in prices would be as eas¬
ily accounted for by the tightness. of money, as by the bad news
from the seat of war. There is no prospect for ease in money
in tbe European markets; ou the contrary, only an entire change
in the situation could produce that, and such a change is most
highiy improbable. This fact has forced down the prices of In¬
dustrials in Berlin, though the décline is stubbornly resîsted and
the quotations, according to last advices, are still higher than
they were a year ago. It is reported that at the coming meeting
of the French Parliament there will be a contest over the
Franco-American Treaty of Commerce, the opposition coming
from the proteedonists. As an indication of the changing con¬
ditions of foreign trade, the fact appears that, while the tonnage
of British shipping in the Suez Canal continues to Increase the
relative share in the total tonnage of the canal déclines, Â re¬
turn for the first half of each year from 1891 to 1899 shows this
relative proportion to bave fallen from 80.5% to 67.4%, concur¬
rently the German tonnage rose from 6.3%tD 10.1%, the French
from 4% to 5.7% and the Dutch from 2.15% to 4%. While the Japa¬
nese flag, which previously did not flgure in the return, is now
represented by 2.3%, that of the United States does not appear in
the comparison.
Architecture In New York
A LONDO.N AROHITECT O.N A VISIT TO THIS CITY.
ATa moment when New York City is the subject of no end
â– *â– -*â– of detraction, only in part justified from its own midst it
is decideaiy cheering to come across remarks of a stranger who
has had a good word to say for its présent and is very flattering
regarding its future, in looking over recently a London exchange,
the well-known â– 'Builder," au old-established jom-nal that, in
whatever it treats architecturally at least, speaks by the card.
It appears that the editor of this journal, or someone whose
views he thought worthy of receiving his officiai approval, has
recently been in New York making "notes," whieh appear in due
course in the columns of his paper. There are those in the city
who would perhaps hâve preferred that this visitor, according to
our impetuous custom, should hâve been met at quarantiue and
had his views extracted from him by the rude corkscrew practices
of the newspaper interviewer, before they had become prejudieed
in any way by actual observation. Whoever he was, he managed
to come in unobserved, to see his sights and go home to tell his
countrymen about them in an intelligent way in an article which
he modestly calls "Notes on New York."
The writer of these notes does not praise the city indiscrimi-
nately, nor does he escape tne stranger's inévitable fate of failing
into errors. Some of these are amusing, as for instance that our
overhead raiiroads, by their noise, make hundreds of hotel rooms
uninhabitable. Of course he means by Englishmen, for whoever
heard of an American objectlng to noise. He seems to think, too,
that New Yorkers ride in street cars because of the poverty of thé
cab System, whereas if he had inquired a little further he would
hâve found that excellence of cheap transportation among a peo¬
ple of démocratie instincts makes expensive forms ol urban travel
scarce. These are small matters, easily overlooked, especially
when they are accompanied by an évident désire to do justice to
the eity and its buildings. New York, he thinks, may probably
be considered the most remarkable city in the world; its dwell¬
ing houses—models of comfort and quiet, and its hôtels—palaces,
The libéral expenditure of money for buildings, of what he ealls
a non-utilitarian character, such as libraries, has also his ad¬
miration. The high buildings come in for a good deal of attention,
as do also the artistic tendencies of this people. On these points
it is perhaps best to quote the writer himself, even though some
of his views, given in the following extract, may appear to be
startling, considering the architectural criticism' to which New
York has been accustomed to receive from native writers:
They are out ot proportion to the width oE the Btreet, but tliey are
at once a bold and a successful endeavor to soive the difficulty of
epace. Tliere is uo European community wiiich would, to use a popu¬
lar expression, hâve taken the buli by the horns ln tliis way. New
Vork, confiT ed on Manhattan Island, pressed ln by the Hudson and the
Ei^st rivers, has many times muitiplied its area by the simple ex¬
pédient of going upwards instead of outwards. It la obvious that,
wlietlier we like it or not, tbe cities of the Oîd World—more espe¬
cially those of Eneland^wiii bave, in perhaps a somewhat modlfled
form, to make use of this kind of building, though the wholesale way
iu which it is being carried out ln l>Iew York would never hâve beeQ
possible ln an Old World city, It i-s a building policy whlch is not