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October 16,1880 The Real Estate Record. 895 authority, in the way of removal, if not of the appointment of all his subordinates, but the courts interfere and strip him of this power, under some technical rulings, and, in effect, make it impossible to remove any city officer, without the formality of a court and of a possible appeal to the law, in every case. The commissioner's discharge of his engineer was declared to be legal by the law officer of the city, by the judge of the court before whom the matter came, by the unanimous decision of all the judges of that same court, and to this, three members of the Court of Appeals subscribed. But four members of that court declared that the dismissal of the engineer was illegal. Property hold¬ ers must understand that it is a very danger¬ ous kind of govern aient which keeps subor¬ dinates in power in defiance of the wishes of the chiefs of the departments. There can be no efficient government when such is the case, [t is a pity, after all, that the judges of our Court of Appeals are not more amen¬ able to public opinion. They are elected for terms wdiicli, practically, amount to a life tenure, and hence are becoming indifferent, not only to the wishes but to the welfare of the community. FLATS AND TENEMENTS. Our readers must have noticed how large a proportion of projected new buildings are for handsome tenement houses and first- class Paris flats. The latter is, after aU, but an aristocratic, somewhat costly, tenement house. They have somehow become popu¬ lar in the metropolis, due, no doubt, to the costliness of living and to the desire of the heads of families to economize domestic labor. Where four servants are required in a private house two are considered ample on a flat, and where meals are served, even one girl will do the necessary work of a small family, the washing being given out. No doubt the popularity of the Paris flats is, in some measure, also due to the ambition of people who have been comj)aratively poor, to live in a large iDalatial residence. Fami¬ lies who were forced to dwell in small houses or occupy apartments in modest dv.'ellings, on becoming better off, or, hav¬ ing a stroke of good luck in business, would natm-ally feel like dwelling for a time, at least, in an immense building, equal in magnificence and embellishment to the l^alace of a king. One of the consequences of this kind of living is the economizing of space, and hence the slower movement in the specula¬ tion in vacBnt lots. All of the present popu¬ lation of New York, if it was under the roof of apartment houses, could be amply accommodated on this Island in a line drawn from East to the North River below Forty-second street. It is the deuiand for single houses, occupied by one family, which consumes so much of our valuable ground. If, by any accident, the tenement houses and flats should become uninhabitable, and the family hotels should be no longer used, all the vacant lots below One Hundred and Tenth street would not supply the de- ipand fpr liouse^ to acppiiimQdat§ tbe former occupants of these large establishments. Flats, therefore, mean such economizing of the available ground of New York as will de¬ crease the demand for residence property. It is not to be disguised that old house agents are of the opinion that the mania for these great establishments is only tempo¬ rary ; that after a time the heads of families will want -their own houses; that after irying living in suites of rooms for a couple of years, they will long for the privacy of their own homes. They will tire of the ex¬ actions of the janitors ; they fear that their coal in the open bins will be stolen ; they do not like their children to be so intimate with the children of people living on the same floor. Then it does not seem so pleasant for ladies to receive their friends in a few rooms in the upper part of a great flat rather than in their own parlors in their own house. StiU there will always be a sufficient number of floating people, of families who wish to reduce exiDcnses or economize labor, to fill the houses already constructed. The experience of Paris settles that question, and New York is yet to become a second Paris. At any rate these new dwellings have be¬ come a feature in our city architecture. They are palatial, imj'osing, and give scope for boldness and variety of design. If some of them should become unpopular, the more elegant and magnificent wUl always com¬ mand their price. There is probably no way in which capital can be invested which is sure of a large and certain return than it is in the erecting of family hotels or Paris flats, say in the neighborhood of our Parks in the Twelfth Ward of this city. ALL RIGHT, OF COURSE. John K. Porter is a member of the law firm which represents the Metropolitan Ele¬ vated Railway Company in all legal contests. During the legislative investigation into railway corporations the fact came to light that that company had paid enormous sums of money to Messrs. Porter, Lowrie, and their legal associates. The controlling stock¬ holder in the Metropolitan Elevated is un¬ derstood to be Jose F. Navarro. During the regime of the Tweed Ring, Mr. Navarro secured a contract from Wm. M. Tweed and Alexander Frear to supply the city with water meters, and, singularly enough, this seems to be the only contract ever made by Tweed in which he claimed no divvy. Upon the breaking up of the ring, Navarro's claim for the water meters was not allowed on the ground that there was a corrupt under¬ standing with Tweed and Frear. The claim was lately transferred to one Baird, also a Metropolitan Railroad official, who made application to the courts to represent !Na- varro before John K. Porter, who has been the referee as far back as 1874. At the end of nearly six years, referee Porter reports the claim a just one, and that the city, in equity and law, is bound to pay it. The city will further contest this award on the ground that the charge for the meters was excessive; and will show that Tweed was not in the habit of giving valuable coii-' tracts without a handsome consideration for himself. We have repeatedly said in these columns that, on the return of better times, we would see the old Tweed Ring practices revived. The same conditions which gave us muni¬ cipal misrule in the past, continues in full force to-day. We have a vast voting jiopu- lation who have no stake in the property of the city, a business class which takes no in¬ terest in local politics, and swarms of poli¬ ticians of both parties who propose to live at the expense of the public. It is a notable circumstance that there has been no reduc¬ tion of the city's expenses since the over¬ throw of the ring. We pay the same ex¬ travagant salaries which obtained before the panic, and every effort to reduce the local burdens and cut off sinecures has been defeated in the legislature. The one measure which did get through, and which would have saved us $2,000,000 a year, was vetoed by the late Gov. Robinson on technical grounds. Nor do we see any hope in the immediate future. Citizen associations, reform organi¬ zations and tax-payers' parties have all been tried and have failed. We have probably entered upon a new era of "rings;" other Tweeds are in store for us, while it will be found in time that the Barnards and Cor- dozas still have their representatives in our courts. THE TRUTH ABOUT LEADVILLE. In the early part of April, while the " boom " in mining stocks was still under way, the editor of The Record thought he would warn investors against certain de¬ lusions which seemed to possess them at that time. Two supplements were issued, trying to put the New York public on its guard, but at that time it was not the tnith which was looked for, but pleasant falsehoods, and so our warnings fell unheeded. When Amie was selling at $4, Little Chief at $10, Climax at $3 and Chrysolite at over $30, we published in a supplement the following article : People who have money to invest would do well to be on their guard against any of the companies organized on Leadville property. Not but that the district is rich, very rich, but it should be remembered that the ore in that camp is a deposit aud is not likely to last. Old Californians shake their h^ads and look dubious when examining the Leadville mines. These are rich in silver car¬ bonates ; are easily worked because near the sur¬ face, and hence the first output is very large, and the mine apparently very profitable. But, as has been demonstrated by Little Pittsburg, and other Leadville mines, the deposit does not last long. Uninitiated irvestors m y uot know that the most permanent mines are those which bear ore in fis¬ sures ; that is, openings in the rock in which is quartz bearing metal. But instead of runnmg down into the earth as is the case with true fissure veins, these Leadville deposits are horizontal, or as one well-known miner says, "in Leadville the fis- ures are ou their backs." Hence, instead of hav¬ ing the centre of the earth to go for, the Leadville mines have at best less than a hundred feet of depth. Old, experienced miners say " beware of specimen mines,'' That is, d'strust a"ny rock which shows gold or silver to the naked eye. Nature is never or very rarely lavish. Wherever gold or silver is found in an almost pure state, one may be sure that there is not much of it. The most prof¬ itable mines, so far, bave been those in whicli the silver has been mixed largely with lead, or, as in the Black Hills, where the gold is a very low grade but covering a large amount; of rock. Silver Cliff bas been well styled tbe Silver Black Hills, for there the ore is in immense quarries. This one is of low gj-ade, requiring expeusiye machinery tu