Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 36, no. 918: October 17, 1885

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October 17, 1885 ine :.^. «jrUlue. 1125 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 1©1 Broad^wav, IST. IT. Onr Tolephoue Call Is.....JOJIN 370. TERMS: ONE TEAR^ ID advance, SIX DOLLARS. Coiiimumcations should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Maiiager. Vol. XXXVI. OCTOBER 17, 1885. No. 918 Our **Business World" contains several articles tliis week which all our patrons should read. We notice that many of our exchanges copy these selections. In The Record and Guide alone can be found the cream of the press discussions throughout the country on the subjects wliich most interest all engaged in active business. There was a pause in the upward movement in stocks towards the close of the week, but the bull market clearly is not yet over. The purchasing lately has been so general and so undiscriminating that tens of thousands of shares must have been transferred from strong to weak hands. It is the outside public who are easily frightened and who are the Tiatural prey of the bears. But all the elements exist for a i-esumption of the rise in stock values. General business, while not so active as it was, is still promising, while the iron trade has not been in so good a condition since 1881. Dealers report that more than one-half the steel rails are taken for new construction. Of course there is no paralleling of old roads, but there are many new lines projected to act as feeders to the old roads aud to develop new country. The business outlook on the whole is exceUent. The success of the Republirans in Ohio will encourage the friends of Mr. Davenport in this State. If the latter should succeed in capturing the State government it will be a sore discomfiture of the **spoils Democrats" who aro opposed to the civil service pro¬ gramme of Mr. Cleveland. The Republicans gained largely in Ohio because of the bitter opposition of the Democrats of that State to the civil service programme. A Republican success in New York would give the Mugwumps great political prestige. The large Prohibition vote in Ohio shows there is a new factor in the politics of the country. The same party will undoubtedly increase their vote in the Empire State. Indeed, the ono danger of Davenport's defeat arises from the fact that the Prohibitionists will be recruited mainly from the Republican ranks. It was not so in Ohio, because the Democrats there upset the high-license law which had put over two million dollara into the local treasuries of the cities and towns of the State. The feeling against the indis¬ criminate sale of liquor is growing in all parts of the country. The candidacy of John Sherman for the Senatorship also helped the Republicans in Ohio. It is remarkable hov/ earnest is the sup¬ port of weU-known Senators in their respective States. American voters may be fickle in other I'espects, but statesmen like Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Webster, Sumner and Edmunds were always sure to carry their States when a Senatorial election was pending. Were Roscoe Conkling to be a candidate it would greatly add to the bulk of the vote of this State. John Sherman has so loug been identified with the finances of the country, and has achieved such distinction in connection with the resumption of specie payments, that a feeling of State pride has been evoked on his behalf. The result would have been more in doubt had ex-Senator Sherman been his opponent, but the Democratic machine in Oliio would cer¬ tainly have sent some far more objectionable person to represent it in the United States Senate had a Democratic Legislature been elected. There are some very exceUent names on the local ticket of the County Democracy. Tammany, also, presents a few very acceptable nominees. The Republicans, however, could easily elect every candidate to such offices for which there are two Demo¬ crats in the field, but the Republican machine is run very queerly. The entire local ticket could have been elected last fall, but *'Jolnii^Y " '^'Brien and his associates (hdiherniely sold out the local licl:- ' is ;ilily to help the Blaine vote. This seems the morelikely, aS J^' ^'' ' lived over ninety thousand votes in New York, while the : It ujy candidate for Mayor ran eight thousand ahead of his tlckt" : <\ William R. Grace twelve thousand ahead of the County Deui' ■ ' . jy ticket. With two such rich prizes aa the sheriff and county clerk the Republicans ought to vote their own ticket, but O'Brien, Hess & Co. run the raachine for their own benefit and not for the benefit of their party. There should be sorae machinery by which voters could be instructed as to the personal character and career of the candidates who seek their suffrages at the November election. In the case of State officers, mayors and judges, there is always sufficient data given to guide an ordinary intelligent voter. But when it comes to county officers and members of the Legislature, the average citizen is all at sea. The endorsement of a party convention is no guarantee of the integrity or fitness of a candidate. The daily press is an unsafe guide, and we ought to have some organization, independent of parties, which will at least tell the voters whom not to elect. Charles O'Connor, when alive, seriously proposed doing this, but he could not get proper support. The tendency of all legislation should be to concentrate authority so the people may know whom to hold responsible when anything goes wrong. Mayor William R. Grace does not appear to advantage in the transactions of himself an :l his firm with Grant & Ward. The dis¬ appearance of the Tobey brothers—one of whom was a cashier of Mr. Grace—is, to say the least, unfortunate. For there people seem to have profited largly by the fraudulent firm, but whether for them¬ selves or for others has not, as yet, been made public. It is a scandal to our law courts that there seems to be no adequate machinery for getting at the facts connected with the failure of the firm of Grant & Ward. It is not known, as yet, who received the profits of its fraudulent transactions, and there is little likelihood that justice will ever be done in the way of punishment of the guilty parties. The Kind of Buildings that are Being Erected. Some three years ago we called attention to what seemed like a new departure in the architecture of certain costly residences erected on the east side. The traditional brown stone fronts in these cases were discarded for brick and stone, varying in color and orig¬ inal if not bizarre in design. It seemed to be the result of an honest effort to give greater variety to the appearance of fine residences in tho better quarters of the city. There were, of course, some unfor¬ tunate results in this striving after new effects. The architects who built these novelties have evidently uot been encouraged, as there are very few of these manj'-colored and strangely-designed buildings now going up in New York. The building is generally confined to the old brown stone front, back and front parlor, with butler's extension. There were, a couple of years back, some quaint small houses erected at the foot of Eighty-sixth street, near the East River, in the Queen Anne style. Grouped together they made a picturesque ajipearance. They have, we believe, rented well, but they have not, as far as we are aware, been imitated in other quar¬ ters of the city. That such dwellings are not more popular is, we judge, more the fault of the purchasing arid renting public than the architects, for the latter would naturally incline to novelties in building, as it would give them a chance te show their taste and architectural skill. As there ai-e no more large apartment houses projected, and as the kind of new buildings now going up are of the old brown stone and plain brick varieties, we judge there is not much hope for any¬ thing novel in the way of domestic architecture so far as this island is concerned. True, on the west side there is a combination of brick, stone and terra cotta, which saves some of the streets from the monotony of the sombre but always acceptable brown stone. It may be that on the northwest of this island, above One Hundred and Twentieth street and overlooking the North River, there may yet be houses constructed that would enrich the land¬ scape. In the bluffy, hilly region just south of the Harlem and west of High Bridge, there are many beautiful sites for picturesque dwellings. A brown stone front would be entirely out of place in this locality. It is, however, in the district north of the Harlem River that dwellings of novel construction should be expected. Most of the ground is laid out with reference to its topographical character. The streets and avenues, instead of being at right angles, are wind¬ ing and conform to the lay of the ground. Then the new parks, scattered from Long Island Sound to the North River, will tempt men of means to lay out neighborhood parks and regions where villas can be constructed subordinated to some general plan. London, Paris, and indeed all the great cities of Europe have out¬ lying regions in which the dwellings conform to an artistic plan, while affording scope for the inventic^i and taste of the architect. People of means who go to live in tho pomi-rural surroundings of the region north of the ITnrlem will demanfl something very dif¬ ferent from the ordinary city brown stone front. Grounds will be essential, of course, and an arrangement of shrubbery and trees, calling into play the skill of the landscape gardener, and, finally, a house which will be appropriate to the green and brown of the foliage and land surrounding it. Architects should turn their attention to this field. It is an inviting and will