Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 11, no. 254: January 25, 1873

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AND BUILDERS' GUIDE Vol. XL NEW YORK, SATUEDAY, JANUARY 25, 1873. No. 254. Published Weeklu bv THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION. TERMS. One year, in advance......................§6 00 Ail communications should be addressed to C. "W". SAVISET. ■7 AND 9 WARBEN STRKKT. No receipt for money due the Real Estate Record will be acknowledged unless signed by one oE our regular collectors». Henry D. S.mitfi or Tho.mas P. Cumjiings. AU bills for collection will be sent from tlie office on a regii- larly printed form. From ail appearances Gomptroller Green will hâve to be sacrificed this winter. "While the community at large hâve every confidence in his integrity, the politicians do not like him, and the contractors,—ail in fact who work for the city, —detef t him. His want o f popularity among the city plunderers is explicable upon a theory honorable to him; not so the dissatisfaction which is expressed by good citizens at his Avant of promptness in business, his needless atten¬ tions to detaU, and his disposition to grasp power which he cannot make use of. He is re- garded in some quarters as a real stumbling- block to the progress of city improvements. We cannot but sympathize with Mr. Green He has been no respecter of persons in dealiug with the city creditors, and he scrutinizes the bills of powerful journals quite ps closely as he would those of the humblest contractor. Hence the attacks upon him in the press. There is no question among the various cliques which are manipulating the proposed charters as to Mr. Green. They ail agrée that he must get out of the Avay and that some more pliable oflacial shall be put in his place. Of course he will- be promoted to some apparently higher position, but the main point is to hâve the money department of the city in accommo- dating hands. ticle, after depicting the truly sorrowful posi¬ tion of American clergymen, Avith their ' ' sen- sitiveness, culture, and refinement," and their average income of $G00 a year, sets forth how in the end they are ' ' thrown into some ho.?pi- tal or asylum as ' incurables.' " It then shows hoAV by help of this neAV eleemosynary associa¬ tion the clergyman is to approach the back area door of the insurance palace, with his bas¬ ket of broken victuals in the shape of contri¬ butions from his vestry or church, on the Avell-known plan of Annuity Insurance, and is there to wait meekly Avhile the lordly porter or the magnificent clerks add to his stock of cold victuals an insurance policy " at clergymen's rates." Is it not time that the 65,000 American clerg}'- gave forth an unanimous protest against this whole beggarly system of rémunération for their serA'ices. They either do a fair day's work every day, or they 'do not. If they do, let them stoutly claim the fair day's Avages; if they do not, let them voluntarily folloAV their brethren of Japan into other pur¬ suits. CEKTAm highly respectable and well-mean- ing gentlemen are just now trying tb strength- -en and refurbish the tottermg édifice of Life Insurance, by " daubing it Avith untempered mortar." For instance, a lamentable cry was put forth lately by the New York 2\mes, to the effect that something must be done to enable clergymen to obtain a reliable insurance on their lives; and an association, heaued by James Brown and his son-in-law, Howard Pot¬ ier, was highly comniended, which styles it¬ self the "Association for Promoting Life In- suramce Among Gte.rgSfmen." The Tinm ax- The City of London, which obtained its char¬ ter about one thousand years before New York, became gradually surrounded by seven semi- cities called the Tower Hamlets, Finsbury, Saint Mary le Bone, Westminster, Lambeth, South- wark and Greenwich ; and each of thèse again was subdivided into parishes, with each a local petty parliament knoAvn as the ''Vestry Board," with control of police, paving, grading, light- ing, seAverage, etc. This system was partly bro¬ ken up by Sir. Eobert Peel fifty years ago. The first necessary expense under the new ré¬ gime wàs $100,000,000 for a neAV System of ECAvers, which would ail tave been saved by proper foresight in the original laying out of the city. A striking proof that those who control the planning of the public works of Ncav York and its suburbs hâve been short-sightedis seen in the following facts concerning Morrisania. This is the smallest town in Westchester County, and interlaces the lands of the city. Containing only 2,549 acres, it has been within the last twenty-two years eut up into nineteen separate districts, each mapped out to make the great¬ est possible number of square building lots, Avithout any référence to the neighboring dis¬ tricts, and entirely at variance with the map of the city. And yet instead of seeking, even at this late day, to rectify this evil by annexation to New York, and adaptation of its thorough- far€s to those of the Metropolis, the political managers of that région are asking leave to ex- tend their limits with over 3,000 houses to be put up in éxactly the wrong places in their lit¬ tle towja of MorriBaiiia. OEGANS IN CHUECHES. TnE question as to the best position for organs in churches, both as to sight and sound, is at présent attracting considérable attention abroad, and various views are entertained by those most interested in the discussion. Some maintain that the most appropriate place for the organ is the east end, where the rest of the sei-vice is conducted, others that the west end is préférable : some again are for enclosing it in a smdU chamber, so as to compress and inten- sify the sound, while others denounce this idea, and assei-t that it should be made as free as possible from ail enclosures, so as to permit the full transmission of sonnd. Practically there seems to be no good reason why the organ should not be appropriately placed in the west or the east, provided the choir and the organ are located together. In some churches, where the choir is placed in the chancel and leads the congrégation, it seems advisable that the instrument should be placed near it, for, with the choir in the chancel and the instrumental music in the west end, they can never be heard immediately together by those seated in the nave, at least in churches of large dimensions. But where organ and choir are placed together in the west end, as they are in many churches. there appears no reasonable objection to such an arrangement, for it is cer- taialy capable of lich architectural treatment, and it is not at ail necessary to face music to be in a position to hear it thoroughly. Indeed the effect of music is rather heightened when the source of it is hidden from view. An instance occurs to the writer, in a church at Rome, lo¬ cated on the Piazza di Spagna, which is—or was some years ago—renowned for the singing of the nuns cfficiatirg there. Being, by their tenets, kept invisible from the ijublic eye, the effect during the service, when thèse unseen daughters of melody joined their. voices in solemn and majestic chorus, Avas thiilling be¬ yond description. But there are other points of perhaps even greater importance than the question of loca- ting an organ east or west, and that is to so treat it, wherever located, as best to insure perfect sound and sightliness. To insure thèse, a veiy few common-sense rules seem necessary to be observed. Ist. The instrument should never be shut up in any nairow chamber or alcôve, so as to stifle its sound. 2d. It should not be placed against any window, but hâve a soUd wall in rear of it, and be so placed hat ample space is allowed to go ail around it, for the purposes of tuning, etc. 3d. It should be placed much nearer the floor than the roof, if possible not more than eight or nine feet from the floor. 4th. The utmost care must be taken to protect the instrument from damp and chaaag'eB of température. To this may be added