Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 36, no. 912: September 5, 1885

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September 6, 1885 The Record and Guide. 967 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. Our Telephone Call is JOHN 370. TERMS: OIVE FEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addressed to €. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVI. SEPTEMBER 5, 1885. No. 913 guns. This was made evident by the spirit of incredulity with which the threats of our civil war were received. We are peacefully inclined and do not believe in belligerents. But we are not always wise in our incredulity, and to the extent that our belief in peace prevents our cities being placed in a good condition of defense we are decid¬ edly culpable. It is suggested now that it is not safe to keep the government deposits in any of our seaboard cities; that their storage in New York, for instance, might invite attack from some impe¬ cunious foreign power with one powerful ironclad in its navy, and not money enough in its treasury to pay for keeping it in commis¬ sion. The suggestion is a good one; but unfortunately the banks in New York offer as tempting a lure as the sub-treasury. The citizens of this city should not rest until Congress has made appro¬ priations for putting our harbor in a state of complete defense. The testimony of Dr. Norvin Green before the Electrical Sub¬ way Commission does not indicate that the Western Union Com¬ pany is very much oi>posed to the project for placing telegraphic wires under ground. He seems very favorable to the movement indeed, although his remarks hardly shed much light on the best means of surmounting the difficulties in which the subject is involved. His statement that it would be impracticable to place electric light wires in the same conduit with telegraph wires, ou account of their stronger current, is suggestive. The electric light system which, for reasons to be found in considerations of cleanli¬ ness, health and comfort, we wish to see rapidly adopted, will be very slow in its growth if it is to be made more expensive through elaborate and costly works of construction. The slow growth of the Edison system is no doubt in great part due to the costliness of the plant, entailing charges for the use of the light which renders competition with gas very difficult. The electric light companies are young, and not generally very strong; and if they are to be handicapped in the begiuningof their operations by the necessity for securing an immense capital, we shall have to wait a long time before the use of their illuminant becomes anything like general. In fact the Western Union Company, unless we except the Bell Telephone Company, is the only electric service organization in the country that can afford to bury its wires. A necessity tliat will cripple other companies may prove to the Western Union Company only its opportunity. This is a field over which we should move slowly and cautiously. We are constantly hearing that the early closing movement, urged by clerks and salesmen and endorsed by many merchants, ia on the point of being adopted; but if you walk along the Bowery at midnight there are not tnany signs to be seen of the much coveted rest. All the night long on that thoroughfare the electric light blazes like noonday, and it is hard to say with certainty that some of the stores there are not perpetually open. The early closing movement does not promise to be soon successful on the Bowery. We are told now that it promises good results in Brooklyn. But before it can be anywhere successful within easy distance from the Bowery that street must be captured. It would be a good thmg for all concerned, as well for proprietors as clerks, were all stores, except those perhaps which supply provisions, etc., to close at six o'clock. But early closing can never be made a custom except to the extent that it becomes universal in the different specialties of trade. For the majority of people evening is the most convenient time for shopping, and the stores that keep open late, all other things being equal, will always secure much the larger proportion of the trade. If the early closers can capture the Bowery, however, they can soon win at all points. It is unfortunate that the promoters of new devices cannot wait un¬ til their inventions are completed before offering them to the public. That cables can be made to draw street cars with speed, safety and economy has been demonstrated in several American cities. With the unfortunate experience thus far of the single cable road that is now operated in New York, it will take a loug time to convince the public of this city that cable roads are goorl for anything. When the Tenth Avenue road "was first opened ior traffic, with cables and stationary engines, the managers, instead of making sure that everything was in working order, invited a number of guests and started a train. Having failed to provide any means of grad¬ uating the motion, they were disgusted to perceive that the cars started at once at a high rate of speed and stood the honored guests on their heads. The projectors of the new cable road encountered a similar mortification last Saturday by reason of one refractory car. The conduct of this car proves nothing against the system, but then the object of the excursion was to prove something in its favor. The rascality exposed in this city by the assassination, by a partner, of a dealer in the '* queer," was only one of those dra¬ matic episodes in crime for which criminals must be always pre¬ pared. But the cool manner in which a brother of the murdered man tells the story of the incident, withholding nothing that can criminate any of the parties concerned, including himself, is refreshing. There appears to have been no honor among thieves in this instance, and if there is anything that a rascal will not stand, it is dishonorable conduct on the part of another rascal. It seems queer that a man, without any sentiment of honor or hon¬ esty in bis own bosom, should be the most prompt and fierce in the punishment which he is ready to mete out to other men who display a lack of the same qualities in their dealings with himself. It is thus probably that he seeks to prove to his own conscience, if he has any left, that he is not altogether a reprobate ; but he fails of proving it to the world. It is the brutal and selfish instinct of the animal only that has been aroused, and the criminal has not made himself in any respect the champion of fair play. Bismarck is accused of wanting the world, but we doubt very much if he wants the Island of Cuba so badly that he will make any extraordinary efforts, either by diplomacy or arms, to secure possession. He will certainly not appeal to arms, for in the event of war he would find the United States a not disinterested specta¬ tor. There is no change possible for Cuba except in the direction of independence, unless under certain and not probable contingen¬ cies when we might take possession ourselves. We do not want Cuba, but would have to be excused for a slight disposition to play the dog in the manger were any considerable power to try and obtain possession. We would have taken Canada away from the English long ago had they not withdrawn their naval arm from the great lakes and conducted themselves in a very quiet and sensi¬ ble manner. Cuba is secured to Spain as long as she desires to hold it as against everything but her own revolutionists. Toward all that class of people we confess to a fellow feeling that makes us exceedingly kind, --------*-------- The opening of the Tenth Avenue Cable road will unqestionably prove of great benefit to the section of the city that lies along the route. Heretofore that locality has been the least accessible part of New York, the annexed district and even many parts of Westchester County beyond having been more easily within reach. It is equal to a mile walk on a level pavement to climb the steep hill that con¬ fronts the passenger at almost every station between One Hundred and Tenth street and the Harlem River. As a consequence of this disadvantage the section of New York traversed by the cable road, though delightful in scenery and possessing unrivaled advantages for drainage, is less well knowu than any other part of the city, some of the oldest inhabitants seeming to regard it as a sort of It is a peculiarity of the American people that they never believe invisible and mysterious land only to be visited by great explorers in the possibility of w^r until they begin to hear the thunder of the 1 in search of new features for the next geography, The opening of The facta furnished by Manager Swank, of the American Iron and Steel Association, on the general improvement in trade in Pennsylvania, will be especially gratifying since they come from a man well placed for taking observations, and who has many year's experience in this special field. Only two months ago, he tells us, there were no signs of improvement in the iron industry ; but since the first of July the price of steel rails, wliich at that time were only $27 per ton, have advanced to $30 per ton. At the latter quo¬ tation large sales have been made at the mills. In other iron specialties, also, she improvement is noticeable. The gratifying feature of this report will be found, of course, in the statement that prices are advancing, for we have been listening a long time to accounts of large sales and small profits. But when we hear of advancing prices we know at once that the conditions are at hand which will give us large sales and large profits, the conditions inseparable from general prosperity. The iron industry, it is very well known, is the best gauge of the general industrial situation in the country, a revival in irou being always followed by a revival in woolen, cotton and every other heavy industry. Our iron interests are so large, in fact, and influence so many subsidiary interests that they cannot be depressed or buoyant without reacting widely over the general commercial situation.