rarch 15,  1902,





RECORD AND   GlIIDE.





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Dev^ p ftfLEstate.BuiLDiffe Apcj^rrEgrungj^ouaEriomDEOtufflB!,
Business juioTHEHES of GErtei^...4DS^T^

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Pubtisfied eVerp Satardasi
Conuxiunlcatloua should be addressed to

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'Entered at the Post Office at New Yorle, N. ¥.. as second-class matter."





Vol. LXIX.





MARCH 15, 1902.





No. 1774





T TT 7 HILE the Stock Market retains its professional char-
* V acter, its continued sti'engtti and the frequency with
which sensational advances are made in what are called special¬
ties are attracting some stragglers in from the outside. The
movement has not gone so far yet as to break the taith of the
bear element in their own position, but it looks a little, as if
persistence iu the tactics employed ou the other side may
eventually do so. It is to be hoped that when those who now
believe in a lower range of values surrender their views they
win not find themselves caught, but it is certainly a fact that
the market was never manipulated so much as it is to-day, and
has been for months past. Some encouragement is found in the
reports of rain in the Southwest, supervening on a long
drought; in the reasonably cheapness of money and its fairly
good supply, notwithstanding the demands of the interior and
foreign centers; and in the apparent ease with which labor
troubles, that at first threaten to become a serious menace to
trade are composed. This alone shows that business is ex¬
ceptionally good, otherwise trade disputes would be left to work
themselves out more. When the commercial interests interfere
as they did this week in the Boston strike it is a sure sign that
they are prosperous, and anxious that nothing shall interfere
with their prosperity. On the other hand there are matters not
so assuring. Buyers of a good many stocks at prices ruling for
the past year, must be disappointed at the dividend returns,
w'hieh while good and even large for post-election prices, make
but a moderate return for the money invested. For instance.
St. Pail! on current quotations pays less than 3iX per cent., and
still less upon investments made last spring. The be-fooling ot
holders of Amalgamated Copper in the matter of dividends
ought to be a warning to them, that in dealing in such stock
they are playing with fire, though history proves tbat that is a
game Wall st. likes. Probably the most disquieting item of
news is that relating to the proposed retirement of a portion of
onited States Steel preferred into a bond, the object of which
is, of course, to obtain fresh capital to meet the requirements
of the company's business. The statements issued by the com¬
pany have not foreshadowed this, but their seciuities have al¬
ways rested under the suspicion that the organization of the
company was made too hurriedly, and that securities were issued
too lavishly in order to avert at any cost a conflict in the steel
trade that appeared to be imminent. Any price was paid for the
sake of other interests at stake, and it is felt that a time must
come when au equalizing process will set in and a penalty will
have to be paid for previous error. Meantime, no weakness will
be permitted if it is true that a new Jinancial scheme is to be
carried out, and probably the method of raising the new funds
will be one that will offer some immediate advantage—a some¬
what equivocal benefit—to the stock in the form of rights.





MONEY in the great European centers is approaching the
"glut" stage aud bankers are beginning to bemoan the
prospect. The chairman of the International Bauk of London
recently presented the case thus: "It is probable that towards
the middle and end of this year we may see a great abundance
of money in this country, and correspouding difficulty for banks
to invest their capital profitably. We have at the present
moment in Germany au absolutely unparalleled abundance of
money, which has found expression quite lately in the remark¬
able fact that the Imperial Bank of Germany actually had more
gold in their coffers than there were bank notes outstanding,
and which has produced the remarkable phenomenon that money
for ordinary and stock exchange purposes in Berlin is cheaper
than I ever recollect. That, I need not say, is not exactly a
blessing for banking institutions, and I am afraid that as
months go by we shall probably have a similar state of things in
this cotmtry. especially if America, notwithstanding its great





internal prosperity, is obliged to go on sending us gold in order

to pay for various purchases of material and of securities." The
growing production of gold has an important bearing on the
matter of money supply, and returns thereof are eagerly read.
Especially is this the case with reference to the Rand, where
slow but sure progress is being made. Production and values
reported by the Transvaal Chamber of Mines are: November,
39,095 ounces, $781,900; December, 52.897 ounces, $1,057,940;
January, 70,340 ounces, $1,406,800; February, 81,405 ounces, $1,-
628,100. Australia reported a production of 4,330,000 crude
ounces for 1901, to compare with 4,193,000 ounces for 1900, and
4,461,000 for 1899. The average value per crude ounce is $17.40,
which would make the 1901 output worth $75,342,000. German
iron interests report further improvement, and the cement in¬
terests, if anything, further prostration. One cement company
has declared a dividend of 2 per cent, against 6 per cent, last
year; one of 3 per cent., against 12 per cent, for 1900, which
had, however, to be paid from surplus, although the company
sold 169,700 tons of Portland; some companies are in financial
straits and some contemplating reduction of capital, etc. The
proposed discontinuance of sugar bounties is causing something
of a scare in Austria and especially in Bohemia where a large
proportion of the population lives by the production of beet
sugars, and values of property and supplies are based upon large
profits hitherto made by means of export bounties and high
home priees.





A Fluid City.

THE Evening Post has recently commented on the fact that
New York, not only industrially but socially, has not as
yet been able to settle down. "The sign of an established and
durable social order in a city," it says, "is the presence of dearly
defined neighborhoods, where people of common tastes aqd
similar resources find near at hand their natm-al associates.
But it is doubtful if any great number of New Yorkers, except
those of foreign origin, are in any such fortunate situation.
You will flnd an Italian, a Chinese, a Hungarian quarter, but
where will you find an aristocratic, an artistic, or a university
quarter?" And it attributes this lack to a fixed domicile of peo¬
ple with similar tastes and modes of living to the fluid condition
of the city, which prevents any gathering together of the clans.

Certainly, nothing is more remarkable about New York,
than the rapidity with which population and busiuess shift their
habitations, and just at present, what with the new bridges
and tunnels, which are stretching out in every direction, there
are impending, perhaps, readjustments more than ever radical
and rapid. Nevertheless, we believe tbat the Post in the above
quotation exaggerates the lack of accomplished facts in the dis¬
tribution of New York population and business. So far as the
latter is concerned there is much in the present occupation of
space that is relatively permanent. The financial district is
well fixed, and one can scarcely imagine any very radical shift¬
ing in the future. Even the expansion of business in this dis¬
trict does not encroach much upon the space occupied by other
trades, because it is taking place in blocks one dimension of
which is twenty stories high. In the same way tbe glass,
provision, clothes, leather and tobacco trades, all of them oc¬
cupy locations, which have remained comparatively unchanged
for many years, and which will change only to expand from
existing centers. The greatest expansion is taking place in
what may be vaguely called the wholesale trade, which within
the past fifteen years has been creeping rapidly up from
Bleecker st, along the lines of Broadway and 5th av., to 23d
St., and which is just now devouring space hitherto devoted to
residences more quickly than ever; but even in this case the
change is only in the way of an advance from an existing base.

As business has pushed further north, it has displaced resi¬
dences by tbe hundred; yet it is too much to say, as the Post
says, that the habitation map of New York fails to contain any
"quarters." There is an "aristrocatic" quarter, in the only sense
that any quarter in iiew York can be aristocratic. Along the
line of Sth av., north of 4Sth st., is a section devoted to very
rich people, which is as much of a quarter in its way as the
West End of London. Furthermore, south of 48th st, aloug
the same line, there is a pretty definite district, in which clubs
and bachelor apartment houses predominate; while some blocks
to the west, there is a quarter known as the Tenderloin, in
which people of similar tastes, if not of similar resources, are
said to co-habit, and which may be considered as tbe "sign of a
durable aud established social order" in much the same way that
the gallows has been considered the sign of a civilized society.
It is true that New York has not like Paris, an artistic or a
university  "quarter,"  but  is   not  that  because  there  are  not