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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 25, no. 627: March 20, 1880

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. YoL. XXY. NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, MAHOH 20, 1880. No. 627 -----------------------------------m----------- the patronage of the mining interest is yery hicrative and promises to be more so. Already a swarm of sheets are published in the interest of mining, and when the daily press takes hold of the matter it really becomes very grave. Of course the newspapers have not got the knowledge even if they had the will to tell the truth about all the properties that are put upon the market. They are virtually drawn into a conspiracy with the rascals who are " rigging''the market. It is not by any means the best properties that do the most advertising, but the worst, and it is the company which advertises the most liberally which is noticed the most favorably by the newspapers. Our readers should bear in mind that in a great gambling speculation, as this mining is going to be, the newspapers are necessarily on the side of the thieves. They manage to increase the excitement and every story calculated to help the sale of the stock is eagerly copied by the press, more especially if the stock happens to be advertised in their columns. What is needed to-day is some one journal as far as it knows, to tell the truth about mining properties. The Record is fortunate in having for one of its contributors a gentleman who is thor¬ oughly posted; who has visited most of the mining regions of the country and who has no interest but to tell the truth. We propose to devote a certain portion of our apace to this information. The aim will be, in a dispassionate and straightforward manner, to analyse the reports that are made, ex¬ amine carefully the published statements of all mining properties seeking a market in New York, and we expect to be "nothing if not critical." We have no stock in this matter to " bull" or " bear " Our canvassers have been instructed not to go near mining companies or to solicit their patronage. We repudiate in advance any persons, claiming to represent The Real Estate Recoed, soliciting advertisements on favor from any mining corporation in this city or out of it. .We believe, to-day, that investments in real estate are retarded by the prevailing mania for buying mines and mining shares. Literally, hundreds of millions of dollars are being abstracted from the East and sent out West to develop the distant regions of Arizona, Idaho, Montana, to say nothing of California, Dakota and Colorado, which might be better em¬ ployed here at home in real estate investments. There is plenty of time to develop the outlying regions. We think that nine-tenths of the money sunk m sinking shafts will be worse than wasted. If any of our readers have hints on this subject we will be glad to profit by them, but we are de¬ termined that so great an interest as that of real estate shall not be lost sight of, because of this foolish scramble for the worthless shares of pre- tensious but dishonest mining properties. Published Weekly by Che Ecd €sMft Eerarb %ssacmiwn, TERMS. OIVE YEAR, in advance.. ..SIO.OO. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SAVEET, Nos. 135 AND 137 Broadawv IN THE INTEREST OE MINING INVESTORS. Our readers will remember that The Real Estate Recokd was among the first journals in this city to predict the mining "boom," which is just now under way. More than a year ago we stated that mining ventures would probably be the coming mania. In speculative times there is always some particular lunacy prevailing in the community, which is taken advantage of by shrewd and con- sciousless operators to line their own pockets at the expense of the investing public. The time has now come to raise a cry of warning. Mining is as legitimate an industry as farming, manufacturiug or any other human industry, but, unhappily, the association of mining with stock operations has always resulted, in every commu¬ nity, in a gambling mania followed by loss to all but the lucky or dishonest few. Gold and silver mines have, no^doubt, on the whole,||been worked for the benefit of mankind, but we must remem¬ ber that the great gambling eras have been brought about mainly by speculation in these necessary products of the mineral world. The Pacific Coast to-day is suffering from its experience in mining speculations. It resulted there in a change of the organic law in the State of California, intended to put a stop to the abuses connected with the manipulation of mines. This result has been to send on to the East a swarm of people who are determined to plunder the citizens of the Atlantic Coast, as they have in times past those of tho Pacific Coast. The Fifth Avenne Hotel, the Sturtevant House as well as other hostelries on Broadway are thronged with these people and cer¬ tainly a more unsavory looking lot of rascals waa never seen outside of Sing Sing. The remarkable thing in connection with this invasion of these vandals from the Pacific Coast is the readiness with which our merchants, bankers and leading capitalists permit themselves to be associated with them in the public prints and in enterprises of ^ very questionable character. With a hope of im¬ mediate profits, Presidents of Colleges, Banks, Directoi-s in our fiduciary institutions and men of means are quite wiUing to act as officers in com¬ panies with associates who came here tainted with infamous records. For a while, the daily press kept aloof from this mania, but now we see so respectable a paper as the New York Tribune together with the World both cultivating this business for the sake of the adver¬ tisements and are helping to delude, innocently of course, the community into investirig in the practically worthless shares of mines now offered on this market. We make no charges against the press. Newspapers are published to make money. The leading editors, themselves, know very little about a business such, for instance, as mining. All they are cognizant of is that the public has become interested; that mines are offered for sale and that THE HORSE CARS ABOVE PIFTY-NINTH STREET. Mr. Cammann's suggestion, as approved by several property owners, to take the horse cars out of Eighth avenue, above Fifty-ninth street, and run them along the Ninth avenue, under the elevated road, ought to be counte¬ nanced by the railway companies. Mr. George Law, we understand, is not opposed to this change of base, and only recently stated that if public opinion manifested itself in a man¬ ner loud enough to be heard, there would not be much difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory transfer of the route of the horse railroad. An arrangement might easily be made to run the cars from the Eighth avenue circle along the tracks of the belt line^on ]''ifty-ninth street, and so on to Ninth avenue, and, as Mr. George Law controls the Eighth avenue as weU as the Ninth avenue road, there 'ought to be no obstacle to this change, which is so much desired, not only by Eighth avenue owners, but by residents of the extreme West Side. The company itself will also be the gainer by this change of route, as more passengers will avail themselves of the facil¬ ities offered for short trips, after leaving the various stations of the elevated roads below One Hundred and Tenth street. Another surface road, for which, we believe, the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Companyjpos- sesses the franchise, should be built along upper Broadway and the Boulevard. It is about time that the ricketty stage which traverses that route from Thirty-fourth street upward should be done away with and the residents of that sec¬ tion be furnished with accommodations for travel more congenial to the spirit of the times. It will also increase the business of the stores that are accumulating in the upper part of Broadway and will certainly not be objected to by Boulevard property-owners, as that thoroughfare is destined to be filled after all with first class retail estab¬ lishments, for the simple reason that it is a contin¬ uation of Broadway. THE EIGHTH AND NINTH WARDS. It is singular that just about the time that there is greater activity in the purchase of vacant lots in the upper part of the island, there should also be a revival of interest in the property of two of the oldest wards of the city. We have already pointed out in these columns how the constant growth of the commerce of New York caUs for more room to accommodate the numerous new firms and combinations continually forming in our midst. Greene street, Wooster street and even Mercer street, along with Prince and Bleecker streets, are now more and more sought after by shrewd investors, owing to this demand for more warehouse room. Steadily and without any ostentation builders are actively at work in metamorphosing the whole of the Eighth Ward, and as each new building is completed there seems to be no scarcity of tenants. They are all being occupied one after another so that a man who has not visited that section, say for a twelve month, flnds himself suddenly in a region virtually new to him. The agitation of the Washington Market question is also helping along the Ninth Ward or at least a portion of it. For blocks around the Gansevoort property, the effect of this change has already been felt to a certain degree. In the train of market men there always follow those who desire to furnish them with food and other requirements while on duty, and the lessons that have been learned in that line in the lower part of the city are not being overiooked by the Ninth Warders. A casual visit to the new market grounds must convince the most prejudiced mind that the spot selected for the market wagons certainly offers facilities which the farmers who