Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 45, no. 1149: March 22, 1890

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March SS, 1890 Record and Guide. 397 ■^v ESTABUSHED-^tfARpH21^'^lB68.^ Dev&teD to Rf^L EswE. SuiLDif/c AflcrfiTECTORE .KouseHold DEGORAnot). Busit^Ess a(Jd Themes of CEfJERAi. I^tcresi PRICE, PER YEAR IIV ADTAIVCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TELEPHONE, JOHN 370, ComQumications should be addressed to C.W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Busineos Manager. Vol. XLV. MARCH 32, 1890. No. 1,149. The advance in prices on the stock market was checked by the announcement of the resignation of Prince Bismarck, and a decline waa forced upon other announcements affecting trade conditions at home. The overwhelming importance, politically, of the change which has just been consummated in the German administration had naturally a very large influence on the Euro¬ pean Exchanges; and while it may not signify any change of policy on the part of Germany towards her neighbors, European financial circles will want to be assured of tbat before making any decided movements. The home market ie, of course, affected to the extent of the selling of American securities abroad; but of this there has been no great volume, and it cannot have any great duration, :u any event. WaU street has been really more influ¬ enced by events at bome than by what is transpiring in Berlin, however much the retirement of Bismarck and its probable conse¬ quences may absorb conversation. The inference of unfavorablecon- ditlons of trade drawn from the Plummer failure; the monotonous tone of the reports from other exchanges and commercial centres, all teUing, for the time being, tbe same tale of dullness, and the reports of injury to property and bustnesB by storm and flood, have been the most important influences against the uninterrupted con¬ tinuance of the advance. The effects of all these put together have not, however, been very serious. The Gould stocks. Union Pacific and New England show the most prominent losses, but with those exceptions a week has made but fractional declines in prices of the active stocks. Some stocks, which ha^^e for some time been quiet, have even made substantial advances, and there are sighs of move¬ ment in others which have not hitherto participated in the recent advance. Money has been easy and an advance in rates in the near future is not anticipated. With a continuation of easy money and in view of the power the market has shown to meet the temporarily unfavorable influences thrown upon it, it is natural to look for a renewal of the upward movement and a broadening of operations. In this event the securities of other recently reorgauized properties, it may be hinted, will be sure to meet attention as the seciu-ities of Atchison have already done. A keen obserrer, now dead, made the following observations in ' respect to what we call legislative investigations, which perhaps are worth quoting at the present time : " Tbe exposures," said he, " whioh ai'e daily made in your newspapers of corruption, peculation, thievery, deliberately planned and carried on for years, as a systematic and tolerable, if not justifiable, mode of managing public business, have come to be accepted as uiere interesting items of news, or as occasions of wbat are called inveatigations which again waste public money, and out of which may he made political capital. 1 was present at one of these investigations, and I say to you solemnly tbat I could not Cell wnieb seemed the greatest seoui'drela, the men who were investigated or those wbo were conducting the investigation. The tone of the whole proceeding was a mixtui'e of trickery, aud a low sort of easy going jocoseness. Manly dignity and honor were wholly absent. I would not have employed oue of the men on eitber side as an attorney." Being neither politicians nor essayists, we need not use the word " scoundrels" in respect to the investigation which we are wit¬ nessing at present; but certainly the tone, in point of dignity, is not a whit higher than tbe one to which the writer of the above refers. We have had the pleasaut spectacle, during the last few days, of hearing the Mayor of our city called a " deliberate har," to which his Honor had no reply to make except tbe delicate one that " You are another." We have further seen our Deputy Com¬ misaioner of Public Works—an office which in any well-governed city would have been filled by a competent engineer—call the counsel of a legislative committee of our sovereign State " an unmitigated scoundrel," at which the counsel, we believe, laughed something after the manner of Mephistopheles. The tone of the whole proceedings cannot be better described than in the words of the above quotation, "as a mixture of trickery and a low sort of ■easy-going jocoseuess," to which must be added that the speakers were a little free in the use of Billingsgate. We do not wish to reflect on the timeliness or the results of tbe investigation, but it is not too much to ask the gentlemen concerned in it to act with a dignity and decorum befltting the officers of a great common¬ wealth and a great municipality. A witty French writer has said that a Mussulman could not do better than to take a Parisian dandy in full bloom, and, pointing him out to his son, say, "Boy, if you depart from the ways of Allah and his prophet, that is wbat you may beco;n6." Could not a monarchist make something of a point hy taking our present legislative investigation, and, pointing it out to a doubtful people, say, " If you permit universal suiTrage in lai-ge towns, that is what the result may be I " It is becoming apparent that a vigorous and systematic attack is being made on Tammany along the whole line, and that that organization, which some months ago seemed to have everything its own way, has been put in a very insecure position. Take the World's Fair matter, for instance. It was apparent, as soon aa the plan took form, that a successful realization of the project would give Tammany the spending of a great deal of money, and con¬ siderable prestige; and forthwith arose an opposition which, led by tbe Evening Poat, and assisted by the circulation of mysterious circulars and by a number of mistakes on the part of the commit¬ tee, came very near defeating the Fair ([Derhaps did so, for all wo know). Take, again, the rapid transit pi'oblem. Mayor Grant sent up to Albany last year a bill which looked satisfactory, which obtained the support of most of the press, and which, if it had passed and had resulted in the successful solution of the difficulty, wonld have reflected great credit on Mayor Grant and Tammany. It failed to pass, and this session the Mayor has been checkmated by the inti'oduction of a measure which, including some of the main features of his bill, and remedying some of the defects, yet names a Commission which leaves Tammany no share in any solu¬ tion which the bill may effect. Then comes an investigation by this legislative committee. The revelations made thus far do not reflect pei'sonally upon Mayor Grant, nor do they reveal very much whicb was not pretty well known before—viz,, that the Sheriff's office is managed on a plan which would bankrupt any private business organization in a week. But, coming as they do in con¬ nection with the indictment by the Grand Jiu:y of a number of deputy Sheriffs for bribery, the Flack matter, and the case of Warden Keating, they show Tammany up in a very bad light. We shrewdly suspect, furthermore, that there are plenty of seusationa yet to come, aud that William M. Ivins, when he resigned his posi¬ tion of City Chamberlain and began this attack on Tammany, had certain data to work upon. Be that as it may. It is quite obvious that we have as yet only seen the beginning of what will be a long contest—a contest which will not be finally decided until the Mayoralty election next fall. Our street-cleaning drama has been comparatively uninter¬ esting this week, owing to the absence of the hero. Commis¬ sioner Loomis, driven away, it appears, by an importunate and aggi-essive, but ill-tempered clacque; for such appears to be the part the reporters are playing in the performance. Duriug the absence of the hero (there being no heroine) the heavy villain naturally haa monopohzed atteution, and appears to have conducted himself admirably after his own lights, although he has not as yet exhibited any sign of the original conception of the part for which the man¬ ager has given him credit. How far Manager Grant is satisfied we do not know, but there seems a disposition to be discontented on the part of the audience, owing, we believe, as much as anything else, to the chai'acter of the supers, who bave not been selected with due reference to the courtly qualities which the parts require. The play will lack interest, however, until the hero retui-ns and shows the audience what improvements in his style of acting result from a survey of similar exhibitions in other cities. Tbere areindications, hoM'ever, that Manager Grant is not satisfied with his hero and may request his resignation. We were perhaps wrong in calling this play a drama. After all, it is the merest travesty, and not a laughable one at that. Xn certain parts of the city there is a limited amount of improvement discernible; but, speaking in a general way, nothing has as yet been done sufficiently " sweeping" in cbar¬ acter to warrant any rejoicing. We maysympathizewith Commis¬ sioner Loomis in bis troubles, and with Deputy Commissioner Hagan at the lack of fair play that is given him; hut we cannot con¬ gratulate either of them on his success. It has beeu stated by an acute critic that the reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything. In a similar spirit, though perhaps with a meaning less paradoxical, it may be stated that the reason why New Yorkers ao seldom get what they want ie that so few New Yorkers really want anything. It is certainly not a pleasant thing to hang on straps. We are quite sure tbat New Yorkers think they do not like it. An ingenious man can find an evolutionary argument in support of almost everything tbat exists at the present day, but we doubt if anybody can show that arms were given to us for the purpose of hanging on straps. Furthermore, it is to be presumed that our property-ownera in tbe upper parts of the city would Uke to see the