Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 11, no. 253: January 18, 1873

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AND BUILDERS' GUIDE, Vol. XI. NEW YOFJv, SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1873. Ne. 253. Published Weeklu by THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION. TERMS. One year, in advance......................5f6 00 AU communications should be addressed to C. AV. s"wjî;e:t. ■7 AND 9 Warken Stuhet. The Committee of Seventy had better ref orm, excluding ail the oflS.ce-holders, and pledging the remaining members not to hold office. "WTiat say yon, gentlemen? No receipt for money due the ReaTj Estate Rkcoud will be acknowledged unless sisned by one of our regular coUector.s. HKNav D. Smitii or TirOMAH F. Cujhtings. AU biUs for collection will be sent from the office on a regu- larly ju-iuted form. Spécial Notice. ^ For nearly half a centui-y .'Vdam HAJtPTONi Sr., was uni- versally known as the leadins manufacturer of Grate.s, Fender.', and Fire-place Hfater.s, in New York, and a large number of.the improvements that hâve been made in snuh apparatuif^. p:irticularly Gr.ite.?, were either invented or in¬ troduced byhim, ami his sons, who liave, since his decease, succeeded him in the business, seem to be similarly enter- prising. for their show-room, at the old .stanil, No. Gold street, contains some very eleaant spécimens of their hand¬ icraft—where also everything that is new and useful in'their line ol business may be obtained at reasonable priées. ^ WlTU this number of the Record we présent to our subscribers a copy of the Index of the New York Conveyances of Real Estate for Vol. IX. and Vol. X. of the year 1872. The regular price for the Index hereafter will be one dollar per year. The next one issued will be much more complète and wiU be indispensa¬ ble ia connection with the bound volume of the Record. Subscribers desiring to préserve the Record for the coming year can procure pat¬ ent jaies from this office, price, $1.00 each. It is a pity that some reform movement is not started, the leaders of which would pledge themselves not to accept office or take any patronage. The Committee of Seventy hâve undoubtedly lost caste with the community, from the fact that so many of them are aiready either office-holders, or aspirants for officiai po¬ sition. A suspicion of interested personal mo¬ tives is very damaging to would-be reformers. Rev. Mr. Beecher recently defended that much- abused class, the politicians. He said, very truly, that the expérience they had acquired ■was useful to the community, but they ought to be restrained by a wholesome public opinion. This is true, and that wise, enlightened public opinion can best be focalized by organizations of citizens who hâve no axes to grind, or personal ends to serve. Surely there are enough of large property-hold¬ ers who would be willing tp act without hope of place, and who could keep watch on the ti'àined politicians to see that their covetous ii^stincts did not get the better of tlieir oivic virkie. We again caU the attention of property-hold¬ ers to the suggestion we made so frequently last winter touching the formation of a Board of Audit, composed exclusively of large holders of real property, whose business it would be to pass upon ail biUs presented for payment to the city. This board to hâve no power further than to report to the comptroUer. This would be a wholesome check upon fraudulent or excessive bills. It will be remembered that even the Ring bills were for proper objects ; the frauds were in the amounts. As the property-holders hâve to pay ail the biUs, there would be an obvious propriety in their examination of aU claims against the city. It is idle to talk of giving power over city matters exclusively to property-holders ; that, the présent state of public feehng -will not stand, but they might hâve the power to exam¬ ine the bills they will be called upon to pay. WiU our charter-makers please think of this ? HOW IS THE MAïlKET ? Old Mrs. Partington once remarked to her beloved Isaac, in response to an expressed doubt as to the creditability of a certain taie of woe, that " it must be true because it was printed iu the newspapers." We doubt, how¬ ever, if even the elastic mind of this worthy dame could reconcile the leamed disquisitions on the state of the New York Real Estate Mar¬ ket, which we subjoin : {From the " World," January ISth.) There are as yet no signs of a revival in the real estate market. During the past week but little business was transacted, and but for the légal sales which were daily held at the Ex¬ change Salesroom there would hâve been no¬ thing interesting to report. Thèse sales are, however, very interesting to the pubhc, from the fact that they continué co be very numer¬ ous, and the major portion of them being f oreclosure sales of houses of a good class that hâve been eiected or partly erected upon lots bought with building loans by spéculative buMers. {From the " Times," same date.) The market during the past week has given évidence of a marked improvement, for not only hâve the auctions held been more numer¬ ous and morè largely attended, but business on the street has been more active, and the de¬ mand for real estate at private sale is growing strpnger. Considérable inquiry is also being made for property to leaae, and a good gênerai ,£ieafion is anticdpated. ME. EUSKIN'S ART LECTURES. Mr. Ruskin has, for some years past, start. led the reading public with many extraordinary opinions, subversive of ail former notions en¬ tertained by intelligent people, but never did he go further than at a supplementary lecture on Sancho Botticelli which he delivered recently at the Taylor Institute, Oxford. In extoUinghjs hero'sfondnees forflowers, andde- scribing his roses and lilies as the most perfect art ever presented, he was carried away with his usual enthusiasm to boast of the artist's Qliterateness as a point of émulation. Botti¬ celli, he said, was bom in 1457, and resolute- ly refused to leam to read or write—"a thing which he wished other little boys and girls would do." As if this pièce of eccentric ad- vice were not enough, he next informed his hearers that he had recently visited the G-DS- TAVE Dore exhibition, and found it "the abomination of désolation—a mass of devils, corruption and death; no life, no motion, no¬ thing but the vilest art and the vilest concep¬ tion." This is the exhibition of paintings which other men of the highest art culture hâve visited, and pronounced one of the most marvellous illustrations of artistic versatility and power which the âge has produced. How any man of cultivated perceptions could -visit that gaUery of paintings in Bond street, study such productions as Dore's Francesca de Rimiui, Triumph of Christianity, the Néo¬ phyte, etc. —among countless other proofs of genius—and, remembering that so many and such varied spécimens emanated from the easel of one man who is stUl young, could find, no better words of comment upon them, is simply incompréhensible. Mr. Ruskin has written many superb contributions to art criti- cism, but his remarkable abandonment of the vagaries of Turner, after teaching ail the world how to bow down and worship them, tended much to shake public reliance upon his judgment ; and a few more such intemperate and absurd denunciations as that just made against G-USTAVE Dore will convince every- body that the strongest condemnation of the great author of "Modem Painters" is of infinitely more value to an artist than his warmest predse. TRANSIT. A FEW years ago one of the principal topics discussed among real estate operators was the constantly recurring one of the Eighth avenue grade, which one year was to be this, and the next year to be that, until it seemed as though the india-rubber question never would be set- tled. Now we hâve a parallel to the Eighth avenue grade in the Rapid Transit