Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 46, no. 1188: December 20, 1890

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t)ecemW20,1890 Record and Guid e. 627 PRICE, PER TEAR IN ADVANCE, 811 DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TEL.EPHONE, . . . CJOKTU^TOT 1870. Conununicatloiis should be addressed to C.W. SWEET, 191 Broadway /. T. LINDSEY, Buaineas Manager, Vol. XLVI. DECEMBER 20, 1890. No. 1,188 THE VILEST SIDE INDEX. AH persons interested in Weat Side real estate should possess an Index of Ten Years' Conveyances, affecting property between b9th and 125th streets, west of Bth avenue. This Index is published by The Record and Guide, and the period covered is the ten years prior io June 30f/i, 1884, to which has been added a list of the con¬ veyances up to January 1st, 1885. Every transfer of real estate in that section, made between those years, is recorded in the Index, with a description of the property, the price paid for it, and the name of the seller and the purchaser. The volume is of the utmost value to conveyancers, lawyers, real estate brokers, agents and dealers in real estate generally, and in order to increase the value of the West Side Supplement, issued vnth The Record and Guide to-day, we will supply the Index to our readers, if ordered before January 1st, at the reduced price of $6. KINGS COUNTY INDEX FOR VOLUME XLV. The Kings County Index for the Conveyances and Projected Buildings, published in Volume XLV. of The Recobd and Guide (January to July, 1890), is now ready and unll be supplied to subscribers, free of charge, on application to the office of publi¬ cation, No. 191 Broadway, THE next two weeks are not as a general thing marked by any great activity in the stock market; and the present year is not likely to prove any exception to the rule. Manifestly the pub¬ lic have no confidence in stocks at tlie present time. Neither is it likely that an easier money market—which to all appearances may soon be at hand—will prove to be of any material assistance in this respect. The importation of gold has not caused any immediate advances ; neither has the new president's agreement been regarded with other than a cautious eye. It is safe to predict, however, that the improved conditions signalized by these events will have their beneficial effecte. As Matthew Marshal says, the present panic, like that of 1857, has been mental; and hitherto, although serious fears have been discard ed, faith has not returned. The continuance of failures in business for no other reason than that tbe merchants could not realize on their assets is but too unmistak¬ able an evidence of this fact. But, as we have said, money will become more plentiful; and determined efforts will be made to stop rate-cutting in the West. Wall street, warned by the experi¬ ence of two years since, is suspicious of the proposed pool; but, as we think, rather too suspicious. The roads who will not sign the agreement are few in number and for the most part unimportant; and as the chance of respectable dividends (in some cases of fixed charges) depends upon a better rate situation, tbe agreement, which has not been lightly made will not be lightly broken. Wall street is, perhaps, wise iu waiting until the crucial matter of the division of the traffic is satisfactorily settled, and until the crop and freight prospects for the new year are less a inatter of idle conjecture; but some day, it is uot impossible that the operators will wake up to an improvement in eamings, and a return in confi¬ dence that will make stocks jump up with comfortable celerity. As to the legislation of Ck>ngre88, if it comes at all, it will probably arrive just as there is no longer any necessity for it. President St. John, of the Mercantile National Bank, is of the (pinion that the bill propoeed by the Finance Committee will not pass, and that the squabble will result in legislation verging closely on the free coinage of silver. In any case, however, the immediate effects of the discussion will be more likely to disturb the money market than to assist it. Holders of Westera mort* gages, particularly in ^nsas, will perhaps find something to think about in the way the Alliance are proposing to treat mortgagees who are sordid enough to f(M%close a lien on a poor farmer's land< Several owners who come into possession of farms under sheriffs' proceedings have been removed bodily, and it ia reported that this htroic way of getting rid of encumbrances will b« continued. If such methods as these prevail there will be an indisposition to send more money out West. ----------------m---------------- THE London stock market is suffering under a reaction from the excited recovery which took place immediately subse¬ quent to the crisis. Speculation, however, has been dull, except in the case of the Argentine securities, which have exhibited a ten¬ dency to rise since the publication of the report of the committee. This report expresses confidence in the future of the Argentine Republic, provided its finances can be set on a sounder basis by the reduction of the premium on gold. In the opinion of the com¬ mittee the country has a valuable asset in the customs duty which it is proposed to make available by the issue of a new loan, secured by this asset. The loan will amount to between eleven and twelve miUions sterling, which will be sufficient to meet all obligations for three years, by which time it is expected that the country will have recovered from the effects of the inflation. That this report will result in anything is doubtful. The French government at the present time is engaged in au effort to fund the Sexennial Treasury bills with a loan of 700,000,000 francs. A return from the Ministry of Finance shows that at the end of 1889 the principal of the French debt aggregated 25,153,266,939 francs, and the annual interest charges to 856,444,770 francs, an increase in ten years of 4,761,913,393 in capital and 94,108,830 in interest. The revision of the French tariff appears to be taking the same lines as the McKin¬ ley bill, for the sub-committees having the revision in charge have voted increases on all the new duties proposed by the government. The conference between the governments of Germany and Austro- Hungary has a very different significance. The feeling is that the Protectionist policy of Austria has been a disastrous mistake, and that the interests of that country will be best served by a customs union with Germany. A wish to retaliate on this country is doing much to help the movement, but it is said that the Austrian govern¬ ment fears the domination of Germany. The results of the confer- enca may have important bearings on the trade with this country. CERTAIN daily newspapers apparently are greatly shocked because Mayor Grant has honored the city by appointing so eminent a rum-seller as Mr. Patrick Divver, to be a Police Justice. What we would like to know is: what was the election in November but a popular call for distinguished gentlemen like Mr. Diwer to come from the retirement of their dives, rumshops and gambling places, and from among their boon companions, to a sphere of wider use* fulness. The voice of the majority of the free^enlightened voters of this city declared in the most emphatic manner on November 4th that they had no maudlin sympathy with "respectability," " decency," and a " government for business," and all that sort of thing, about which so much was said. They were evidently perfectly satisfied with the government which this city has '' enjoyed " for several years past. Under the circumstances it is ver/ illogical for anyone to blame Mayor Grant or denounce Mr. Divvtr. The former is carrying out to the letter the wishes of the majority of our voters just as Mr. Scott would have done if he had been elected, and then appointed to office men of business capacity and honorable character. Indeed, we venture to assert that if the principle of majority-rule is to hold good, Mayor Grant is bound by duty to put aside any personal preferences of his own and nomi¬ nate to office good Tammany'men, of which Mr. Divver is a notori¬ ous and shining example. BUT in the meantime, what is that vast body of " respectable peo¬ ple " doing about which we heard so much in the Evening Post and other papers at election time? We were then told that they would go to the polls in their might, and banish from amidst us forever the corrupt rule of Tammany. Though they were called upon loudly enough, like the gods of the prophets of Baal, tbey must have been sleeping at the time they were wanted, High as is the estimation in which Mr. Divver is held in certain quarters, we hardly dare suppose that he realizes to the full the ideal of a police magistrate for the respectable part of this community. One can only with great difficulty imagine the appointment of Mr. Divver to a magistrateship in Berlin, Paris or London (because, we suppose, of the inability of an effete civilization to recognize legal ability in a rum-seller); but if, due to some freak of tbe appointing power, such a man should get into office there, we believe the respectable part of the community would not rest until he had been induced to resuine, what in theological language is called tbe position to which God had called him. Is it not curious that that great body of respectable citizens amongst us are so backward in expressing an opinion at this moment on a matter of no little importance to them 7 SYDNEY SMITH'S classification of tho human kind as men, women and clergymen ought to be altered so as to include a separate class of politicians. Their ways are inscrutable. Appeal! to common decency are as little regarded as appeals to oommon leiiMt If th«re evar was a reform wbicb can be earily anil cheaply