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The Record and guide: v. 39, no. 987: February 12, 1887

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February 13, 1887 The Record and Guide, 191 gables. The composition and the treatment of this front are so good that it deserves to be seen to better advantage. The end on Vesey street ie also an effective composition, recall¬ ing, without repeating, a Gothic front by the same designer in East Fifty-ninth street. The greater part of its fifty feet of breadth is covered by a gable of moderate pitch filled with stone at the apex, leaving at the side space for one ample opening iu each of the three stories. The gabled part consists in the first story,, of an arched doorway deeply splayed and heavily moulded, the mould¬ ings dying into the jamb at the impost without corbels or capitals. The doorway itself is square-headed, and the head of the arch is filled with a blind tracery of mullions in stone work. At the side of this archway is a square window, with a similar window in the second story. Alongside of this latter, and over the archway, is a stretch of plain wall relieved by a niche with an ogee canopy ending in a crocketed finial, and directly above this again a range of small openings apparently lighting the hallway. The feature thus formed, though simple, is a more elaborate piece of architec¬ ture than any other in the building thus far and is very successful. The south end on Fulton street resembles that on Vesey street, except that, being narrower, it is altogether covered by its gable, which is bisected by a tall chimney stack, of which three flues are produced on the wall and continued downward to the top of the second story. The doorway at the corner repeats that already described, except that the blind tracery in the head of the archway is cusped mstead of muUioned. Tiie eastern front towards Broadway is the most conspicuous of all, being visible at an effective distance and being of the same length as the front on Church street. It is broken on the ground plan only by the projection at the north end. At the south end is a group of three gables and at the north end one, being the roofing of the projection at that end. The wall between is buttressed and divided into four bays of three stories each, as already described in the south front, an additional story accruing at the ends in the gables. Under the central one of the three southern gables is a shallow three-sided oriel of stone running through two stories. At the north end the windows are grouped in the centre of the pavilion, the central window in the third story rising above those at the sides, though all are square-headed. These dispositions prevent the extreme simplicity of the ground plan from becoming monotonous. The projections and the slight differences in the treatment relieve the wall surfaces from this danger, while the sky-line is animated by the introduction of the gables, by emphatic chimney-stacks, and by a questionable cupola at the north end which looks too much as if it existed for this sole purpose and is not altogether congruous with the rest of the archi¬ tecture. It is almost the only feature that does not seem to have grown naturally out of the requirements of the plan and to have imposed itself on the architect whom, on the contrary, we suspect of having imposed it on the building. Practically, the building can scarcely fail to fulfil completely its purposes, -A building only 35 feet deep and open on both sides certainly should not lack for light and air. Architecturally, it is one of the most consolatory objects to be seen down town, and it is almost a niatter of regret that no other owner of real estate than the corporation of Trinity has any inducement to go and do likewise. paying he would raise the taxes from less than 3 to 5 per cent. It is probable that builders and laborers would be willing to second these demands, but they will be anything but satisfactory to tax¬ payers who think their present burdens quite heavy enough. Yet, certainly, New York wants more improvements. It is deficient in school buildings, and the Health Department should be permitted to spend more money than it now does. Then we certainly do want a municipal building for the uss of the city departments which now pay extravagant rents to private owners. City Improvements and the Working People. At the various conventions and meetings of workingmen a great many resolutions are proposed and platforms adopted which are vague and impracticable. This is particularly the case in the pro¬ grammes suggested for our municipal government, but a writer in John Swinton''s Paper, speaking in behalf of the 68,000 who voted for Henry Geoirge, tells them to urge on the authorilies the follow¬ ing measures: Let them demand that the city erect and own its own public buildings, instead of paying out over $100,000 per annum for rents. Let them demand that not less than $10,000,000 be expended for public works, instead of $3,759,730, which is all that has been allowed for 1887; and at least $3,000,000 for public parks, instead of $840,75u, as the amount now stands. Let them demand a round $6,000,000 for education instead of $3,993,187. We need $3,000,000 right away for new school-houses in the upper wards, the present facilities being entirely inadequate. Let them demand $3,003,000 for street cleansing instead of $1,050,000; and $1,000,000 for the Health Department, instead of a beggarly $312,660. This would do very well for a starter. IE the Board of Estimate aud Apportionment do not heed their demands, then let them appeal to the Legislature. Extravagant! think you, Mr. Labor Reformer ! these ideas of mine ? Not extravagant, Mr, Labor Reformer, only large, progressive, that is all. What has labor to do with cheese-paring kitchen economy of the Hewitt-Atkinson stripe? Why, except for the rascality and corruption of It, the best government 'New York city ever had was under the old " Tweed Ring," and the evidences of it will exist for a long time to come. At the game time the writer objscts to the continuance of our present large municipal debt, and says we ought to pay off $10,000,000 ^f-To |©t ^ijg iRouey ^r |lje improyenie»ts and |be 4eb| Our Prophetic Department. Inquieer—Suppose we discuss some one of the larger topic to- - day; for instance, the subject of emigration, and in this connection the prospects of the different newer sections of the country. The development of Southern industries strikes me as being particularly interesting just now. Sir Obacle—There is this to be said about emigration. When families change their homes they generally go West, or, rather, they follow isothermal lines, A Spaniard or Italian moves to South or Central America ; the German inclines to the temperate zone, such as Missouri and Kansas ; the English and Irish come to our Middle States, while the Norwegian is not satisfied with any¬ thing warmer than Minnesota or Dakota, The same tendency holds good with our home emigrations. The man born in Maine removes to the cold regions west of the lakes. The New Englander emigrates to Western New York, Northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and due west from those regions. Pennsylvanians and Jerseymen follow the line of latitude and seek the region that reproduces their old homes, at least so far as the weather is concerned. But, as a general thing. Southern people do not in large masses seek Northern homes, nor do the people born in cold climates migrate to warm regions. Inq.—But what have you to say to the development of the mineral regions of the South ? Is it not true that there is now a Northern emigration pouring into the mineral zone which runs west from North Carolina to the Mississippi River and includes Northern Georgia, Northern Alabama and Mississippi and the State of Tennessee ? Sir O,—The next census will, I think, show a much more remark¬ able increase in the industries of that region than in the number of outsiders who have settled there. While coal, iron and other mineral lands have advanced enormously in value we do not hear that there has been any corresponding increase in the value of agricultural lands which would have been the case had there been any large increase of the white inhabitants. Capitalists and quite a number of skilled workmen have undoubtedly come from Penn¬ sylvania and other States to develop the coal and iron lands of this rapidly-increasing section of the Southern States, but the improve¬ ment has been inainly among the native whites and negroes who have more work and better pay. Inq.—But will there not be a strong attraction for emmi- grants to go to that improving Southern country in view of its vast industrial possibilities ? Sir O,—Some of the readers of these conversations will wit¬ ness quite a "boom" some day in the agricultural lands of Vir¬ ginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Northern Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi; in other words, the time is not distant when the extreme West and Northwest^ will not seem so attractive to the emigrant as the States I have indicated. There are plenty of fertile lands there very cheap, and every year becoming more desirable because of their nearness to home markets of consumption. Inq,—In that case the railroad securities of the South must grow steadily in value ? Sir O.—As a matter of course. It is estimated that it requires 150 acres of cotton lands to produce ono car load of freight, while 80 acres of land in Kansas, producing grain and fattening cattle, will fill six freight cars in a year. A manufacturing community sup¬ plies a still larger traffic to the railroads. The change, therefore, from cotton growing to diversified industries means a practical tripling or quadrupling of the business of the Southern lines. We do not hear of any paralleling of roads in that region, but, on the contrary, there is a consolidating of interests which will check competition and permit of large economies in the management of Southern systems of railway. Inq,—As I understand it, the Richmond Terminal now controls the Richmond & Danville, East Tennessee & Memphis and Charleston roads, embracing over 4,100 miles of territory. It is an open secret that the Norfolk & Western and the Georgia Central will in time be operated by the same company. iThen, it is further said, a new bridge is to be built over the Mississippi at Memphis and a new road constructed to Kansas City, all of which will' belong to the same system—the R, T. Sir O.—It is written in the book of fate thatjRichmond Terminal will be one of the great railway systems of the country, as great, indeed, as the Vanderbilts if they were consolidated, or as the Penn- fiylvania Qeutral, - "yi^^ye will be .moaejrmade^ and a ^reat deal ol iJL •5Sffc'^^*,-^j)^5.^.;^p,'j '^.via+s^.v '£',