Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 24, no. 604: October 11, 1879

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS^ GUIDE. Vol. XXIV. NEW YOKK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1879. No. 001 Publislied Weekly by €bt%m[^shk%tcox'h%5Socmtm\, TERMS. ONE YEAR, in advance....SIO.OO. Couiiuunications should be addres.sed to C. W. SAVEET, Nos. 345 and 347 Broadway POINTS TO BE REMEMBERED. Ill discussing the present financial situation it will be well to bear the following points in mind : 1. That there is a steady increase in the gen¬ eral bu.'jiness of the country. 2. That large quantities of gold and .silver are coining from Europe, S. That the banks are rapidly issuing more currency. 4. That the government is gradually putting iuto circulation its silver certificates, its gold, and we will soon see the standard silver dollars iu general circulation. And this means— 1. Increased activity and the growth of a spec¬ ulative fever in all branches of business. 2. A gradual rise in prices, first in stocks and then extending to all kinds of merchandize, and, linally, real estate will feel the impetus. 5. A gradual enhancement in value of all ex¬ portable articles will in time make the exports less and the imports greater, and the end of all this will he¬ ist. A dangerously inflated condition of the currency, leading to high prices and speculation in all departments of trade. 2d. An enhancement in values of all exporta¬ ble articles, so as to decrease the quantities of merchandize we send abroad and the increase of the price of all imported articles. 3d. A feverish and unwholesome speculation, ending finally in a crash. Of course, Congress may change this pro¬ gramme. If it was decided to withdraw all bills, both greenbacks aud those issued by the national banks below ten dollars, and let the vacuum be liled by gold and silver, and at the same time something was done to prevent the unwholesome emission of more paper currency, there would be il pause in the speculative fever and whatever rise in prices there might be would be based upon a gradual and wholesome appreciation of values. The real trouble with us is that we have'too much currency. We started last January with nearly a thousand million of paper, gold and silver. To-day we cannot have less than twelve hundred thousand, counting all the gold, silver, paper and fractional currency now passing from baud to hand. This is entirely in excess of the wants of the country and must finally end in disaster, but this trouble need not be apprehended for some years yet. \' THE PROPOSED " ZOO." And now, it seems. New York is to have a great Zoological Garden, covering some thirty acres, and rivalling the famous Jardin des Plants of Paris and the Zoological Garden of London; other features being added to make the scheme Attractive and profitable. The site is oh the Har¬ lem River, and the ground selected affords op¬ portunities for artistic development. This insti¬ tution will have an advantage over those of Lon¬ don or Paris in being in the line of the develop¬ ment of the city's growth. New York mast en¬ large in the direction of the Harlem River, and, merely as a speculation, the purchase of thirty acres for four hundred thousand dollars will prove an immenselj' profitable one. It has been predicted that New York will be the money cen¬ tre of the world; that the exchanges will come here in time as naturally as they now go to Lon¬ don ; but whether this will ever take place or not, it is very clear that this city promises to be the great amusement centre of the woidd—a second Paris, without the objectionable immorality of the latter city. With its Coney Island, Long Branch, and the projected .splendid improvements at Rockawaj"-, New York will surpass any place in the world for its salt water bathing resorts. Staten Island, the Hudson River and the Sound have literally thousands of beautiful places for recreation during the summer months. Our theatres are the largest and finest in the world; our Central Park cannot be surpassed for its com¬ pleteness, and this Zoological Garden will, if the scheme is carried out, bo worth millions of dol¬ lars yearly merely from the interest which will attach to it by the visitors from abroad. As yet, San Francisco is ahead of us in being possessed of the splendid Palace Hotel, with its wonderful interior court-yard, but the great hotel of New York is yet to be erected. Some day the natural advantages of the hills overlooking the Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek will be taken advantage of, and the Richmond Hill, of London, will be surpassed by a dozen places in the vicinity of the metropolis. He who secures a reasonable plot of ground witliin the charmed circle of this evergrowing city will leave a sure fortune to his descendants. ABOUT ERIE. It seems to bo pretty well settled that the Erie Railroad Company has practically passed under control of the Vanderbilts. In the eagerness of the stock speculators to realize money out of this news, the public has failed to imdorstand the re¬ sult of this change of the direction in the Erie road. No doubt the Vanderbilts will make the Erie property a better one for the stockholdere. Tho interest on the bonded debt will be promptly paid and perhaps in time even the preferred stock may have a value from a dividend point of view. But the community is destined to suffer. We may expect an increase of rates, especially of the local rates, on the Erie road, and the milk business will be subject to the same e.xactions in New Jereey that are imposed upon it on the Harlem road, in Westchester, Putnam aud Dutchess counties, in New York. The Vanderbilts care nothing for local trade, except to find out how much it will stand in the way of taxation. People, however, are in such a hurry to make money ; times are so buoyant; speculators in Erie areso jubilant ; that this great artery will pass under Vanderbilt's con trol without any protest from the business public. And yet it will be a sore blow to the commercial prosperity of New York. Erie, like the Central, it \viU be feittembered, is soon to become » Bos¬ ton as well as a New York road. Its right of way through the Hoosac tunnel will enable it to supply New England with coal and other merchandize. The old Erie managements, however dishonest they may have been, as affecting the stock¬ holders, were always popular on the line of the road. Even Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, bad as they were supposed to be, when they ruled Erie, were yet very popular with the local dealers. The road itself was kept in good condition, and a liberal policy was adopted towards all who car¬ ried freight on the road. This will now all be reversed. The Central road is unpopular from Buffalo down to the Harlem Bridge. There is not a pereon who does business with it, excejjt a few favored friends of the Vanderbilts, who do not condemn the management of tho road as being grasping and illiberal. Intere.stcd a.s wo are in New York real estate, we cannot reganl it as a happy omen that all the avenues to other parts of the country, nnd especially the West, should be under the control of one family who are dis¬ tinguished above all things for caring more for their own interests than for those of the public. A NEW STOCK EXCHANGE. The increasing interest iu the stock market has led to the organization of an Open Board of Brokers, to have four sessions a day, extending from nine to five o'clock; the rules of which will permit the selling of five aud ten shares of stock. There is some talk of renting the large hall of the new Real Estate Exchange in the old Post Office building for the use of this new Board. vVe are promised a repetition of the extraordinary excitement which prevailed during paper money times from 1863 to bSftS, when there were after¬ noon and night sessions of stock operators at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Americans never do anything bj'halves. Mr. E. C. Stedman, who fms recently returned from Europe, says there is no such Stock Board as that of New York in either Paris or London. The lioume is a very quiet and decorous place com¬ pared with our Exchange, and while th** London money market represents an enormous amount of transactions, it is for small sums antl for a great variety of enterprises. There is no such feverish activity as with us, and the method of transacting business is such as to put a limit to operations. It takes a couple of daj's and a great deal of red tape for instance to have five shares of EngUsh consols transferred from one pereon to another, but here everything i.s dono with little waste of time. At present the E.xchange here is not large enough for the number of eager opera¬ tors that throng its floor. Wc want a much larger building and a finer one, architectuniUy, and if the regular Board were wise it would per¬ mit dealings in a smaller number of shares. The great poptdarity of the " bucket shops " shows that there is a demaud for a stock-dealing insti¬ tution among a wide circle of people of small means. The gambling instinct is not by any means confined to the rich. Perhaps we are not quite justified in calling stock operations gamb¬ ling. Undoubtedly the speculative spirit runs into mere betting on a hazard; but still dealing in securities is in itself entirely legitimate, and there can be no moral objection to si person buj-jng rt