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The Record and guide: v. 36, no. 908: August 8, 1885

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August 8, 1885 The Record and Guide. 879 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. IQl Broadwav, IST. IT." Onr Telephone Call Is.....JOHN 370. TERMS: GIVE TEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS* Communications should be addressed fco C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager, Vol. XXXVI. AUGUST 8, 1885. No. 908 The firmness displayed by the stock market, notwithstanding the slight apparent effort made at maintaining the recent increase in quotations, shows the confidence in the adjustment of the railway differences felt by those who are best situated to form a judgment. We say those best situated to form a judgment because the stock market was long since deserted by the general run of buyers and has been left in the hands of men who may be called professional stock dealers, and whose success or failure may be supposed to depend on their careful study of all the conditions that influence values favorably or unfavorably. It is the opinion of these men that is at present maintaining quotations at the advanced figures, for the public have not yet returned to the market, and will not return until all the proposed arrangements between the railroads are consummated. They have been too often deceived during the last two or three years to take anything on credit. But when the con¬ ditions are made through which they can be brought back, still another sharp rise in the market must follow, and we are likely to see the activity of a few years ago repeated. John Bright, of England, warmly endorses the land reform programme formulated by Mr. Arthur Arnold, which embraces the following points: (1) Abolition of primogeniture; (2) Abolition of copyhold and customary tenure; (3) Prohibition of settlements of land on unborn persons and the power of creating life estates in land; (4) Conveyance by registration—all the interests in the prop¬ erty on record to be registered; (5) Sale of encumbered estates. Mr. Bright think^ the time is ripe for all these reforms to be carried* Great Britain will then have free trade in land as in other kinds of property. In commending this land reform project the London Daily News particularly endorses the registration suggestion which, it says, is to be found in perfection under the Torren's laws in New Zealand. It quotes Mr. Mundella as saying that he was personally cognizant of the ease and cheapness of land transfer in that colony. He saw valuable parcels conveyed in a few hours. It could even be done by post. All the above-mentioned authorities seem to think that the time was rapidly coming when land could be trans/erred as easily in England as in New Zealand. The Old World may get ahead of the New in this matter. During several years past it has been evident that a perception of the advantages of bi-metallism has been growing in England. The mono-metallists of that country seem to be composed mainly either of men who, like Bonamv Price, are professional economists without business training, or merely business men whose economic studies have been pursued in banking houses. The bi-metallists, on the other hand, are men of both practical and theoretical train¬ ing, who are not merely able to hold to good opinions but to give their reasons. We are glad to welcome another sign that those who fa.vor a narrow metallic foundation for a circulating medium in England are not so firmly secure in their position as they would have us believe. A despatch tells us that the council of the Man¬ chester Chamber of Commerce has decided to ask for a goveranient inquiry into the monetary question, and that the London Chamber of Commerce is also in favor of the same course. This is reported as a distinct victory for the bi-metallists, and the further statement that it is expected that the government will appoint a special com¬ mission on the subject is a still more favorable symptom. The bi-metallists of this country have only to stand firm in their deter¬ mination to permit no steps backward in their efforts at securing at once free and sound currency conditions and their day of success will not be far distant. We can always win when we persist. The long-projected Metropolitan Railway of Paris will soon be under construction. It is to cost 210,000,000 francs, and is to run on the east and west sides of the Seine. It is also to be built north and south. Circular trains will be run on the east bank of the Seine so that every part of the metropolis will be provided for. So far New York. London and Berlin are the only great cities that have intermural steam accommodations. Paris will soon have as good facilities as either of them, but when the Brooklyn system of elevated roads is completed and a connection is made at the Brooklyn Bridge with the New York *• L " road, this city will have the pleas- antest internal travel of any of the large cities. Still our elevated roads do not meet all the requirements. We want more rapid transit, and this will in time be furnished by a steam road under Broadway, connected with the Grand Central Depot. The arrangements for the funeral of General Gfa.nt have, for the most part, been dignified and suitable. The most conspicuous exceptions to this rule have been furnished by Dr. Newman and Commissioner Squire. The disgust expressed by the press and by all intelligent persons for the meaningless doggerel affixed by the Commissioner of Public Works to the front of the City Hall, had no effect upon the official bard, and the verses defaced the building when the body of General Grant was carried into it. The Mayor's positive order for the removal of the rubbish was received by the Commissioner with a very bad grace, and it is said that the Mayor himself employed the workmen who finally took it down. As for Dr. Newman, one ought not to judge too harshly a minister " out of a job," to whom advertising is almost a necessity. No doubt Dr. Newman had a sincere admiration and liking for General Grant, but it seems that these sentiments were accompanied by a keen sense of the value to himself of all the publicity that could be extracted from the death of his patron. His absence from the death¬ bed scene was evidently a great blow to him, but he recovered him¬ self in time to be the most conspicuous figure in the subsequent ceremonies and to pronounce a most absurd and indiscriminate eulogy. It was fortunate for the impressiveness of the ceremonies that General Grant had been restored to the retired list of the army so that there could be a military funeral. If any of the municipal organizations represented in the procession had had charge of it it would have been hopelessly vulgarized. The arrangements for a military funeral being fixed by army regulations, the same guaran¬ tee against bad taste is provided that is afforded in ordinary burials by a liturgical service aa opposed to the extemporaneous effusions of a minister who may or may not have sense and tact enough to avoid indecorum. It is time, however, that the obsolete barbarism of ** lying in state" should be done away with in public funerals. The exposure of a dead body to a promiscuous crowd is a repulsive performance. Moreover, there cannot be much reverential senti¬ ment left in people who have been for an hour pushing for places in a line, and who are finally hustled past the remains of a great man by policemen who exhibit about as much sense that tbe occas¬ ion is a solemnity as if they were supervising a picnic at Jones's Wood. As a matter of fact the motive of most of the crowd who went to view General Grant's remains seemed to be a gaping curiosity. They went in order to say that they had gone. Some¬ what more respectable was the motive of those who took their children to see the remains. To a child of to-day who lives to be an old man or old woman, the remembrance of having witnessed General Grant's funeral w ill be worth having. But it is not neces¬ sary for this purpose that the remains should be exposed. The suit of sable worn by New York during the present season of mourning has not looked, upon the whole, becoming. A few buildings were draped with considerable taste, but in the great majority of instances the draping has been without either expres¬ sion or meaning, mere fluttering rags of white and black. The draping upon the Herald building, for example, has looked as if arranged by the printer's devil, and many another equally pre¬ tentious building is scarcely better in appearance. We wish to make a suggestion. When an exterior is to be decorated for any occasion, whether mourning or festive, the proprietors should go to an artist and have a drawing of the building and decorations made carefully in detail, and to this design the workmen should adhere. This will be the only means of avoiding such tasteless, not to say vulgar, designs as our streets have \pitnessed during the past two weeks. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. The New York Tribune of Monday contained a dispatch from Trenton which gave it as a rumor that the Baltimore & Ohio Company, in their struggle to reach New York, had under con¬ sideration a plan for utilizing the New Jersey shore front on the Kill-von-Kull, west of " Caven Point," meaning, no doubt, Con¬ stable's Point. This is evidently not true for several reasons. First, the water along the north shore of the Kill-von-KuU is not deep enough for the service of first-class shipping, and the Balti¬ more Company will not go to the expense of reaching the harbor of New York for the purpose of availing themselves of second-class accommodations. Second, the point in question is not accessible from the west except across Newark Bay, and when the trains of the Baltimore & Ohio road have got over this broad sheet of water they would not be limited to the terminal resources of the north shore of the Kill-von-KuU. Third, there is not deep water enough south of and including the water front held by the Reading