Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 11, no. 257: February 15, 1873

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AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XL NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1873. No. 257. Publis/ied Weeklu bv TlIE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION. TBllMS. One year, in advance......................ÇC 00. AU communications should be addressed to 7 ANI) 9 WARRKN' STRKBT. No receipt for rooney due the Rkat. Bst.'^te Rkcord will be acknowledged nnless signed by one of onr regular collectors. Henry D. s.mitu or Thomas F. Cummings. AU bills for collection will be sent from tbe office on a regu- larly nrinted form. SPK.CIAL Notice. Beautifullt designed Majolica Tiles hâve recently been introduced as a covering for counter-tops. and the idea is becoming very popular. It orighiated with the firm of Measrs. Anderson. Merchant & Co., successors of S. L. Merchant & Co., of this city. The same firm hâve now on exhibition at their store, No. 244 Pearl street, a great va- riety of the most artistic, beautifnlly designed, and gor- geously decorated, Encaustic and Majolica Tiles, the pro¬ duction of the ilessrs. Maw & Co., of London, for whom the above firm .are the Agents for the United States. The tile layersin the employ of the above firm are ail ejperts from England, and alfwork done by them is guar¬ anteed to give perfect satisfaction. ISncaustic Tiles are also getting to be very much iised in conjunction with plain Tiles, for flooring .aiid also for mu¬ ral décorations, and the Majolica Tiles are extremely rich for Hearths, Mivntels panelling, and for inside and outside wall décorations, they cannot be surpassed. One by one the parks—the breathing places of the city—are absorbed for ' ' absolutely neces¬ sary " objects by absolutely irrésistible gentle¬ men and cliques and companies of gentlemen. The latest project of this sort is to dévote a large pièce of Réservoir square to the use of the Seventh Régiment for an armory. The building now used by this régiment for that pur- pose is over Tompkins Market near Cooper Insti¬ tute, and does not give them what they doubt¬ less consider is their due, the most élégant drUl room in the city. But some other place can be found for them without disfiguring a park that has been lately remodeled at great expense. It will seem to many in poor taste to put ar¬ mories in places whose legitimate, normal use is for récréation and récupération : to unnecessar- ily mingle "' war's loud alarums "—the rattling drum, the shrill fife, the click of muskets, the measured tread of armed men, with the prattle aritl gambols of children • by day, and young levers by moon-light. The fact is that the Seventh think that the broad, carefully paved walks of the Réservoir Square would be a sweet place to air their beautiful uniforms. They complain that they hâve no place now where they can practice the ' ' double-quick " to advantage. They hâve the same opportuni- ties as other régiments. They are rich enough collectively, if they w;int Spécial privilèges to buy them for themselves. Another objec¬ tion to this invasion of the square i-", that whén the spell is once broken by placing one building in a park, a hundred good reasons axe soon forthcoming for putting others there. Prople who abuse the Tweed Charter of 1870, should remember that it furnished the club which beat out the bratns of the Ring. Its prime merit was that it fixed responsibihty. Under previous charters the Ring worked in the dark; they managed mayors, boards of aldermen and supervisors, commissioners, and plundered vicariously ; Sweeney held no office, and Tweed was only one of a board of twelve supervisors ; but the 1870 charter by its board of audit provision, most unwisely for them, made Sweeney, Tweed, Hall and ConnoUy peison- ally responsible for every dollar they spent. When the exposuve came there was no scape- goat possible ; they had to bear the whole brunt of the public indignation. Under previ¬ ous charters—the ring in the background — the lightnings of popular wrath would hâve fallen upon some wretched tool of an alder¬ man or superviser ; but Sweeney, Tweed & Co., though discredited, would not hâve beeu ruined as they now are. The moral of this is, that in any charter frameil in Albany we must hâve responsibiliby ; in no other way can we hâve an assurance of honest local government. The Tweed Charter was a very defective instrument in many par¬ ticulars, but in so far as it fixes responsibility it was well framed. HINTS FOE CHAETER MAKEES. 1. Elevate the office of Mayor by giving that officiai $50,000 per annum, and the finest house in New York for his résidence. 2. Make him the pivot of the whole city gov¬ ernment, and let him hâve a cabinet—the heads of the various city departments—who shall be responsible to him. 3. Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the lower part of Westchester, should be Consolidated with New York, and the Common Council should be chosen by some scheme of propor- tional représentation. 4. The tax-payers should be required to audit ail the bills presented to the municipality. They should hâve no power of initiation, nor any veto upon the will of the community ; but they ought to be allowed to see and report upon .ail expenditures of money, to prevent waste and the payment of fraudulent claims. 5. Fee offices should not be abolished, but the compensation should be regulated, to prej- vent excessive payments. 6. Civil service reform should be attended to at once. Ail appointments of minor officiais shotild be for life, and ail boys and girle who had passed through the Free Collège or Normal School, should be eligible for thèse positions. 7. Power should be given the municipality to construct markets, rapid transit roads, and bridges—to make New York the Impérial city it is destined to be. The city should also as¬ sume sovereignty over ail the street cars, which should be run by the city for its citizens, without référence to cost. Ail conductors and car-drivers, as well as firemen, shoidd be po¬ iicemen. The companies should also be run by the city government, for the benefit of the citizens. This wiU do for one day. THE REGISTEB'S OFFICE. Passing down Chatham street and approach- ing City, HaU, one cannot help being struck by an old-fashioned dismal structure, looking in ita base Uke an Egyptian mummy-palace, topped by the frail walls and narrow Windows of a " first-class " New York six-story tenement house. This old-looldng, superannuated and miserably patched up building is strangely con- trasted by its magnificent surroundings,—the Court House, the new Post Office, and the Staats Zeitung's Office,—is caUed the HaU of Records, or Register's Office. It contains an immense number of books and papers, officiai duplicates and originals of documents, whose value can scarcely be calculated, and whose destruction would be a dire calamity to the City and County—nay, even to the State of New York—as the business relations of our me¬ tropolis are so extended that they spread out over our whole State like a network, afEecting the interest and property of many thousands of citizens livir^ in this city and the iuterior of the State. It seems, therefore, almost in- credible, how, under the very eyes of a miUion of people, and especiaUy under the sharp eyes of the members of the bar, the Register's Office could hâve faUen into such terrible neglect as we found it on a tour of inspection a year ago ; but if we look back upon the shameful trans¬ actions in regard to the New Court House dur¬ ing the blooming period of the Ring dynasty. we may weU undérstand that the HaU of Rec¬ ords was not exempt from the gênerai system of wholesale plunder, déprédation, and dégra¬ dation, by which the means appropriated for public purposes disappeared in the pockets of officiai robbers. TVe scarcely exaggerate when we say, that for years the Hall of Recorda was nothing more than a dark, dirty and over- crowded hole, not adapted for any employée to stay in, nor for business men to do their work properly ; and, we only do an act of justice, when we now point to the many salutary changes which hâve taken placcsince the great reform movement of 1871 swept the principal ringleaders of mighty Tammany overboard,