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RECORD AND   (iUIDE.





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Dd/oteO TO I^:al Estate.BulLDI^'G A.RCrfiTECTURE.KousQiou)DEeaRfi]Di).
RusitJESs AfJoThemes of GettoyJ. IlftERpsT.

PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX   DOLLARS

Published eVers Saturday

Oommiialoatlone ahould be addressed to
Q_ yf^ SWEET.  14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK





i. T. UNDSEY, Boainoss Manager





Telephone, Cortlandt 3157





•Entered at the Post Ogice at_New York. Jf. Y.. as second-class ma.tte>\'





Vol. LXIX.





JANUARY 18, 1902.





No. 1766





THBEB GENTS A DAT FOR A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF
BEAL ESTATE UEGORDS !

Ten-dollars for a complete system and set of real estate records
alphabetically arranged, printed aud ready for as easy reference as
a word in the dictionary, is an interesfmo proposition for everyone
who has anything to do with real estate operations!

It is possible for every real estate man- to equip his ojjice with the
most perfect and handiest system oj real estate records at a nomi¬
nal cost.                                                                    ,,,      r,       .-,        J

This service is supplied to all subscribers of " lhe Record and
Guide Quarterly^'—apublicaiiun issued every tliree months, lhe
fourtknumbcr aimually is an issue containing all the records for
the entire year arranged alphabetically. The subscription price -is
ten dollars a yea/r.

Tliose who are not subscribers should investigate the advantages
of this publication. All other systems arc needlessly cumbersome
and unnecessarily expensive. Start the new year with " The Record
and Guide Quarterly. The annual number for 1901 is about to be
issued, and u-e will send you ihis number i< ith the following three
quarterly numbers for ten dollars-less than three cents a day for
a complete set of real estate records.

Drop a postal card to the oj}ices of publication, Nos. U-\& Vesey
St., or telephone 3157 Gortlandt, and we will gladly show you ihe
pablieatioit and explain io you its uses as a time-saver and money¬
maker.





THIS -week has seen a further shrinkage in speculative in¬
terest in the stock market, consequently prices only ad¬
vance when professional shorts have oversold for the time being.
Commission houses are empty again and the volume of business
is steadily diminishing, signs of a sagging marltet and lower
prices. The main events of the week bring again into prom¬
inence a fact that has been lost sight of for some time, and
that is the existence of a periodical necessity for new capital
that besets all great corporations, and particularly railroad cor¬
porations. Under this necessity Atchison has put out a new
issue of bonds for improvements, notwithstanding the expendi¬
tures made under that head during the late receivership and
the fund provided for the same purpose when the reorganization
was completed. The period covered by all these supplies was
comparatively short. The new interest charge will add to the
difficulty of maintaining dividends on the stock when the lean
years arrive, though it does not cut much figure in these fat
ones. Then, too, New York Central's new issue of stock em¬
phasizes the great expense that railroads entering big cities
must, from time to time, incur in order to conduct their busi¬
ness under modern conditions of city life in this country. What
applies in New York city applies also, though in lesser degree,
in other cities. Primitive ways, such as running through streets,
will everywhere have to be abandoned as time goes on and
more expensive substitutes provided from new capital bearing
smaller returns. Presumably the day must come, in a not very
distant future, when the foot and other traffic will malte it im¬
possible for the New York Central to continue to run freight
trains down West street and across Canal to their freight de¬
pot on Hudson street. How the company's right to do this will
be cancelled or compromized is an interesting consideration.
It may possibly be done, it is well to point out. in a way that
would benefit the company. If, for instance, the surface privi¬
lege was abandoned for an elevated one it might help the com¬
pany to solve their difficult city transit problem, and at the
same time be beneficial to their stock.





THE Appellate Division, in Brooklyn, yesterday handed
down a decision in the case of the City v. George Herdje,
in which they hold that the new tenement house law is con-
Btitutional; that it is a valid exercise of the police power, prop¬





erly passed by the Legislature in the interest of public health,
morals and safety, and that the use of the property for which
the owners might exact compensation must yield to the require¬
ments for public health. Under the application of these prin¬
ciples it would appear that al! of the provisions of the law af¬
fecting tenement houses existing at the time of the passage
of the act. are valid. The original suit was brought by the City
of New York to restrain Mr. Herdje from constructing four
buildings under plans filed and approved on the morning of the
day when the law was passed. At 11 o'clock on that day, and
before the bill was signed, Herdje made a contract for the con¬
struction of the buildings. On tne day the Kelsey Amendment
was passed the permit was revoked and an injunction obtained
by the city. Tiie case wil! be carried to the Court of Appeals.
and will be argued in a few weeks. •





Coming Changes and the Street  System.

NKW officials, and old ones Eor that matter, always receive
a good deal of advice as to what they should or should
not do, and probably one of their most difficult tasks is to pick
out of the mass of suggestions the good and discard the bad.
Of course, our newly created borough presidents are flooded
with this sort of volunteer assistance, much, probably, more
valuable inchoate in the minds of the givers than expressed and
delivered in verbal form, and much that must be put aside sim¬
ply because of the mental and physical limitations of the per¬
sons to whom it is offered. Not only does our form of govern¬
ment that makes officials so approachable bring them a multi¬
tude of counsel, but the circumstances of the moment here to
a great extent warrant this freedom of communication between
the official and the civilian. The new charter by its provisions
for carefully subdivided local action, and the channels it opens
for the expression of the citizen's wishes through local boards
and in other ways, tends to foster general interest in local gov¬
ernment, through the only rational means, active participation.

It must be admitted that the new officials have shown a praise¬
worthy desire to carry out this object of the charter by inviting
suggestions and holding their offices open and themselves ready
to receive the public, if not in dressing gown and slippers, still in
a really democratic way. There is, then, no reason for either
regretting the rush of communications with which the new
heads of the city government have been met, or of apologizing
for making any small contributions to the stream. So far, the
demands, judging from the reports of them that appear in the
daily press, come from very restricted sections and concern
matters of very localized importance; this little thing or that
is clamoring to be done, while nothing is heard of the big ones
whose importance is city-wide. This ought not to be, and
perhaps is so more in appearance than fact; but such things
as the Delancey Street Bridge approach have not been heard of
since the old administration went out of power, while something
is heard of other improvements that rank very much lower in
importance. As to the matter of the Delancey Street Bridge
approach no one seems to know just where it is. The late BoariJ
of Public Improvements approved an approach—a bad one, by
the way^and it was supposed to have gone to the Municipal
Assembly, but did it? If so, and if not, where is it now? Did
it die legally because all the forms to give it complete sanction
\-^.ere not observed prior to the operation of the new charter, or
did it pass into the possession of the Board of Aldermen as
heirs to the Municipal Assembly?

There is another important question that the President of the
Borough of Manhattan ought to take up, and that is the
capacity of the present street system of the borough in re¬
lation to the great public and private works of improvement,
that are underway, a question that must be taken up in a com¬
prehensive manner. At the moment it states itself this way::
What changes are required in the street system to meet any
new conditions of traffic that may be created by the building
of new bridges, the laying out of new trunk line railway ter¬
minals and the building of an opening of stations on new local
lines, etc., etc? This question will have to be taken up first Ini
a detailed and then in a general way. For instance, it must
be determined how the traffic from each of the new bridges
is to be distributed as the bridges themselves are opened; theE
whether other improvements, whether made by individuals or
corporations call for new public work. That is to say, will it be
wise or safe to leave the junction of Broadway. Sixth avenue
and Thirty-fourth street as it is now, when the great building
going up there now are completed and drawing crowds to that
point? Are the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to build their
depot on Seventh avenue without any means of dispersing the
traffic they will create beyond what are now afforded?   When





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