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September 7,1895
Kecord and Lruide.
303
____)} . „ .
,^ ESTABUSHED*^ (^CHSli^ 1868.
Oev6tij) to RfA,L Estate . BuildiKo %crfnz(nuRp J^ajsntfoiD DEOdt^in..
Busik'ess Atfo Themes of GtifeR^l ItfTERf*!,
PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.
Published every Saturday.
TBLBFHOMB,......COBTIANDT 1370
iConmunloatlona should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.
, I. LINDSEY. Busittess Manager.
Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Street,
Opp.. Post Obhioe,
" Entered at the fost-offlce at y&c York, JT. r., as secondrelass matter."
Vol. LVI. SEPTEMBEK 7, 1895. No. 1,434
LF gold shiyiuents arc to uflect stock market prices the time
has not yet come. The reaction seen at the close ot this
.eck was no more than would be natural at any time atter a.
I'eek's activity on rising quotations. Thei'e are no new develop-
aents to account for the sustained strength of prices. People
re optimistic where they were pessimistic before. Money is
ilentiful and trade is good in all parts of the couutry east of
;hicago, and there are reasonable expectations that it will soon
le better west of that point; jobbers in the big towns already
eport an increasing demaud in many lines as a result of a large
:ora crop beingplaced beyond danger from climatic changes.
iovf cheerful is the spirit that is animating people with money
lowadays is shown by the high piices paid for investment
lectirities, and indeed some that are not strictly investment
esues but liave the iavor of buyers by reason of their activity
lud consequent prominence. The advances in some of the Eric
ssues illustrate the last part of the foregoing remark. The
ji'operty is beiug reorganized for the fifth time ; on each of the
irevious four occasions, as with the present, it was thought that
I. basis had been reached from which the road would never get
nto trouble again. But this fact is overlooked "or forgotten.
There has always been a speculative charm about Erie notwith¬
standing its disreputable career, which it seems stilt able to
exert and which will probably put the iirices of its securities
iiway beyond intrinsic worth, aa it has done before. There are
many similar cases which exertlike induenccsln times of specu¬
lative fever. The thoughtful, however, ponder on the situation
liud wonder how it cau be what it is with the national treasury
depending for its gold reserve on the voluntary contributions of
a charitable syndicate, the future demands on which as well as
its ability to meet them being alike impossible to measure, while
the man who does not give any such serious matters a thought
goes with the stream and makes money.
ME. CHAMBERLAIN has begun the unfolding of his policy
which is to unite the British colonies and possessions to
the mother country in iudissoluble bonds. A few days ago he
told a deputation of Liverpool merchants who waited upon him
that he believed state aid should be aflbrded for public works
all over the Empire. Mauy of the colonies should he regarded
ae undeveloped estates which can never be developed without
Imperial assistance. This opeus up an illimitable prospect for
tbe investment of capital under goverumeut guarantees. That
he spoke with the knowledge and consent of Lord Salisbury smd
tho other members of the Cabinet is highly probable, as it has
since been reported that a committee of experts is to be
appointed to assist the Secretary for the Colonies with their
advices in laying out a plan to ett'ectuate his policy. A blue-
book ou the development and resources of India has just
appeared, and as its preparation muat have been ordered by the
late administration, it shows how desirous statesmen of all par¬
ties ave of seeing British capital more concentrated on the
upbuilding of the Empire through the development of its colos¬
sal if scattered resoiu'ces. This book states that during the past
Bis years nearly 2,000,000 acres of land have heen profitably
added to the area of irrigation. One irrigatory work, the
Periyar project, is intended to conduct the waters of the Periyar
River, by a cutting and tunnel, from the western side of a lofty
mountain range which enjoys an abundant rainfall to the east-
em aide where the rainfall is deficient. In the same six years
4,117 miles of railroad have been opened, the number of cotton
mills increased from 89 to 136, the jute miUs from 24 to 28, the
number of rice-cleaning mills from 43 to 58, the sawmills from
41 to 69, and the paper mills from 4 to 8. The output of coal
was 1,388,000 tons in 1887 aud 2,,529,000 tons in 1893. The
increase of the coal product is drawing attention to the luagniti-
cent deposits of iron and other ores. The amount of gold mined
in Mysore rose fiom $1,415,000 in 1888 to $7,250,000 in 1893.
There are oil fields both in India and Buiinah yet to be ex¬
ploited and large areas still to he reclaimed from the jungle and
devoted to the cultivation of wheat, cotton, rice, tea, coffee aud
many other things. While the political coudition of Turkey is
occupying a great deal of the public notice, that country's
finances naturally come in for some share of attention, with the
result of forcing the conclusion that financial complications will
come to add trouble to a aituatiou already sufiiciently embar¬
rassing. Turkey of all nations haa been a most inveterate bor¬
rower, without regarding iu the least the prices paid for pecuniary
accommodatious, so that the heavy expenses that have to he
incurred owing to the unsettled condition of the so-called
Christian provinces must be very burdensome on an exchequer
which rarely or never has had enough money fi-om legitimate
chaunels in any one year to meet that year's obligations. France
continues to buy Kaffii- miDing shares in spite of the expostula¬
tions of the French press, both serious and comic. In Germany
the iron trade is becomiug active like the textile trades, but
grain prices are going down, creating fears of renewed agi-arian
agitation. Austria has issued a statement of the national
fiuauces which is satisfactory, iu that it shows that all obliga¬
tions have been readily met by income in the past twenty-five
years?.
THE place of the bicycle in tho dwelling or apartment house
' has atlast come up for settlement through the ordinary
channel, the law court. It was inevitable that some property-
owners would object to having wheels brought into their houses
and equally inevitable in the prevalence of tbeir use that the
owners would insist on a place being found for them. An actiou
has heen begun in the Supreme Court to restrain the owners of
an iiptoWQ apartment house from prohibiting the daughter of
one of their tenants from keeping a bicycle on the premises.
This will serve to set property owners thinking what policy they
Avill take toward the whirling "bike." The wisest course would
be to make some provisions for the bicycles of tenants and of
their friends who visit tiiem on their machines when not
in use. In view of the rights of tenants to take their persoual
effects into their apartments, it is unlikely that the Courts will
discriminate against the wheels, and property-owners will serve
their own interests by providing separate accommodations lor
them, or tolerating them in the basements as they do baby-car¬
riages, ratherthan risk damage to their hAllway-walls hy having
them carried thi-ough their houses. Geueral as is the use of the
bicycle now, it has not reached the limit of its popularity. A
uew generation will see every one, without limit of age, condi¬
tion or sex, using a wheel in some form, and we look soon to see
the live property-owner advertising as one of the attractions of
his houses or apartments, " bicycle racks, chains and padlocks in
tho basement."
THERE ia a man who has discovered why people—meaning
of course some people, because he cannot be referring to
the two millions who live contentedly within the shores of the
three rivers—prefer to live io the country instead of in New
York City. This discovery he has communicated to an evening
newspaper. It is that a large proportion of the " middle grade "
apartment houses are in a coudition which the sanitaiy code
describes as "dangerous to life and detrimental to health."
These houses, this gentleman says, "are aboat as unsafe for
occupation as the receiving vaults of Greenwood Cemetery."
Let one dog bark and there is aoon a canine concert. This com¬
munication was followed hy others, all like the first anonymous,
luoueit was asaerted that "more than one thousand so-called
desirable apartment houses have been examined {by the writer
presumably) duriug the past twelve years and of those more
than two-thirds have heen rejected on account of insufficient
light and ventilation or unsafe plumbing and drainage." These
are terrible charges against the builders of apartment houses,
but on examination one will be surprised that they are not sup¬
ported by the recoids of health aud the bills of mortality. If
thefirstof these statements was true New York City would be
plague ridden and its death rate equal to that of an Asiatic city
in times of cholera. The second writer must have beeu hard to
please, if ainoug the 333 houses that were not rejected because
" of insufficient light aud ventilation or unsafe plumbing and
drainage," he could not find in one in which to rest from his
search. It is ridiculous to say that any one cause is driving people
from town to country or even to say that one predominates. In¬
creased aud cheapened traveling facilities form an importaut
oue. The writers of these letters may be surprised to learn that
there is a considerable numher of people who prefer to live
away from town. Others are being driven into the suburbs "by
the encroachments of business on one-time residence districts.
Bettered circumstances carry a good many away from the poorer
and reduced circumstances a good many from the richer quarters
iuto the country. The fact that the same money ynll piovide
the seclusion and conveniences of a detached house ivith a patch
of garden in the country, which \i'ould obtain only an apart¬
ment in the city, determines many to accept the former. All