Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 28, no. 708: October 8, 1881

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942 The Real Estate Record October 8,1881 MINING INFORMATION. Thepre.«ent management of Chrysolite have done something which, is unprecedented in the history of mining speculation. Under the stim¬ ulus of repeated dividends, the stock advanced from 5 to 9, whereupon Professor Raymond makes a public announcement through the En¬ gineering and Mining Journal, that thatprice is not warranted by the condition of the mine. It may be worth, he says, a great deal more, but all mining, especially Leadville mining is very un¬ certain. The ore bodies may pinch out, aud the value of the minerald extracted may become very low. After this outgiving, the price naturally fell off. The usual way in ordinary stock transactions is, when the price advances, for the insiders to do all they can to mark up the values and then unload on the public. When they get out the facts are made known, and when prices break the stock is bought back again. The present managers of Chrysolite found the mine wrecked by the California swindlers, ^who first put it upon the New York market, Ray¬ mond, Gurnee & Co, paid off a debt of nearly half a miUion, accumulated a' surplus of nearly some $300,000 more, and are now paying divi¬ dends; hence the rise in the market value of the stock. The officers are quite right in advising the public not to buy. The Chrysolite mine has a valuation'of $1,800,000, But what a pity it is that more mines are not run "asXhonestly as the Chrysolite, And so the BuU Domingo is to be bonded after all. It is over $100,000 in debt. This property has been a heavy tax on many well-known peo¬ ple, David Dudley Field, RichardlM, Field, ex- Governor Dorsheimer^ Silas Dutcher, Senator Bamum, and a great many leading people in the New York Central road were large holders of this stock when it was soiling at $10 and $12 a share. This mine was very rich on the top and showed an immense fissure, but it seems to have been a disappointment down below. It does not necessarUy f oUow that the stock wUl decline be¬ cause the mine is bonded,' Big Pittsburg jumped from 50 cents to $4,50 after the bond was taken up, and the same thing occurred when other properties have become mortgaged. Mining shares are still very duU, The promised boom on the Comstock has not taken place, and so the New York market is without animation. The great apartment house of Mr, Edward Clark, on Eighth avenue between Seventy- second and Seventy-third streets, is now up to the second story. As, however, this magnificent structure is to be eight stories in height, it is hardly to be expected that it wiU be under roof before the vdnter sets in. There is to be good, honest work on this building, which cannot be hurried. It is imderstood that Mr, Clark in¬ tends to erect a fine block of buildings on Seven¬ ty-third street. They are to be first class dwell¬ ings. Rumor has it that the whole block bounded by Eighth and Ninth avenues, Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth streets is to be built upon by Mr, Clark, Half a dozen capitaUsts, like Mr. Clark, would soon work a marveUous change on the West Side. PINAL RESULT OP THE RAILWAY WAR, The Railroad Gazette of September 30, con¬ tains an exhaustive article on the losses by the railway war. It admits they are heavy and thinks the contest wiU last some time yet; but the conclusion of the Gazette is summed up in the following: "The local freight and travel are probably larger than ever before. There vsdU not be so much grain to carry East as in the two years previous, doubtless, but the other through traffic wUl probably be larger. The farmers have been enriched by fonr successive abundant crops, and are not going to be made poor and to greatly liniit their purchases by one bad one. Those who have a merely tolerable crop will receive so much from it on account of the high prices that they vriU of ten be quite as weU off as last year. The enormous activity in railroad and other" con- structioif requires of itself a vast-amount of traffic, aod this construction cannot be checked by bad crops; nothing but serious financial dis¬ aster wiU do this. The remarkably large profits shown by the vast Pennsylvania system in July and August, in spite of the railroad war (and this company probably carries one-quarter or more of the whole freight affected), and shovm also by the Erie in July, indicate that whatever the losses by the raili-oad war, thei'e is not likely to be any positive financial embarrassment resulting from it. The Pennsylvania, the Baltimore & Ohio and the New York Central will continue to pay dividends at the old rate; the Erie stock¬ holders and those of some Western roads will have their hopes of dividends stiU further de¬ ferred, probably, and some Western roads wiU probably pay (as they wiU certainly earn) less than last year. But there is not the slightest sign as yet that anyone is going to be bank¬ rupted. In the New York Times of Thursday was a let¬ ter from Paris, under date of September Mth, in which the foUowing paragraph occurs : The grave had sc-areely closed over the remains of Emile de Girardin, when a sentence was pro¬ nounced by the Tribunal Civil of the Seine which stigmatized him as one of the chief instigators of one of the most disgi'aceful frauds ever perpe¬ trated in a civilized community. A syndicate known as the "syndicata of the three G's," com¬ posed of MM. Girardin. Genty, and Gibiac, took up the Vendee Railway stock, used the influence of their names and political situation to run up the shares 80 per cent, above par, and then sold out, after which, the enterprise being entirelv false, the company became bankrupt, and a too confiding public was the loser for the sum of 8,000,000f,, which the three G's and their acolytes pocketed. The shareholders turned crusty and attacked the Board of Directors, otherwise the aforesaid syndicate; suit was brought against them, and they have been sentenced to refund, each in certain strictly defined proportions. With some difference, this looks very much like the floating of the Manhattan stock by cer¬ tain well-known speculators, MoraUy, that New York transaction was as iniquitous as that of the French three G's, The law ought to have a rem¬ edy for the innocent investors in Manhattan, but then, unfortunately, our court decisions, under our lawyer-made laws, generaUy favor wreckers and plunderers. POINTS ABOUT REAL ESTATE. " What is the prospect for real estate this faU?'> asked the writer of an operator well known on the Exchange. "Property is very strongly held," was the reply, "and there are not, to my mind, many bargains at present figures. If money continues tight and there is a bear market in WaU street, I do not see how you can get up much of a furor in real estate." "But," urged the writer, "does not the specu¬ lation seem to be going out of the stock market and into other things? Look at the great advance in com and wheat, the higher prices of the metals," "As to higher prices, I think we are having them now. What I was thinking about was the activity in real estate, I am a dealer and I would like to see people buying and selling. But understand me, I am alluding to vacant lots, unimproved property. There is quite a buying demand for houses, and builders have been en¬ couraged to enter into new contracts," "You do not think, then, that New York is overbuUt, and that new houses are likely to be a dmg upon the market?" " Certainly not. The present demand is for very costly houses, showing that rich people are coming to New York from every quarter. The advance is by no means so marked in houses cost¬ ing from $18,000 to $40,000, Within a couple of years I expect to see a great enhancement in the values of what are called cheap houses. Rents are rising and house property is becoming more valuable," " So there are no bargains in unimproved real estate?" " O, I think that some lots can be bought west and north of the park, which vsdU advance in price. The only real speculation I know of is in those two quarters. It is noticeable that build¬ ing is going on north of One hundred and Twenty- fifth street and to the northwest of that street." " W'hy is.^not the flat country north of the park being buUt upon more?" " On account of the delay in the improvement of Morningside Park. The streets are not yet opened, nor is the work done on New avenue and the other streets near that locality. This wUl keep back building to the ultimate advantage of the neighborhood, which wiU be a very choice one as soon as Morningside is put in proper shape." SUBURBAN RAPID TRANSIT. Editor Real Estate Record: It was not the Third Avenne Elevated Road which advertised for laborers, but a Fordham horse-car company. The proposed elevated road on Third avenue, north of the Harlem river, has a great deal to do before it can commence work. The company is to be organized, subscription books opened, the consent of the city government obtained, right of way secured, surveys made, and, more than all, the money for the work must be subscribed, and the writer for one cannot see how they can raise a dollar. As for the suburban rapid transit, the old company is going ahead all right and will be heard of in due time. It has done everything it could do up to date, and is now securing the right of way. Those who know say that the Third avenue scheme is whoUy impracticable, and that it will nevex' be buUt, The route is a preposterous one, as it ex¬ pects to run parallel for quite a distance with the Harlem road. People can come now from Mount Vernon to the Grand Central depot in twenty- one minutes. The proposed elevated road would consume thirty minutes before it reached the Harlem river. As yet the population north of the Harlem river is not sufficient to support local rapid transit routes, and it would not be wise to construct any suburban lines unless it had in view the peopling of the Twenty-thii-d and Twenty- fourth Wards, Insidee, ABOUT ASSESSMENTS, Editor Real Estate Recoed : There seems to be misapprehension about the city assessments for Morningside Park, In some quarters it is supposed that the money paid in by the property holders in the neighborhood of the park was for improvements. But such is not the case. The money raised was spent in purchasing the ground which forms the park. The State has authorized the expenditure of ll.'iO,- 000 to improve the park, and a portion of that sum has already been made a part of the tax levy. Ninth Avenue, ABOUT PARTY WALLS. A question of party-wall rights, which has some general interest, is submitted to La Semaine des Constructeurs for decision. Two men, A and B, owned in common the division waU between their houses, A added to the height of his house, ex¬ tending the party wall upward, as he had an un¬ questioned right to do; but after the completion of the work, it was found that the new gable, being exposed to the rainy winds, was i-apidly deteriorating, and that some means must be taken to protect it, so he arranged to cover it with metallic slates, B, however, forbade the appli¬ cation of any protective covering to the wall, on the ground that being a virtual addition to its thickness, it would project over into the estate of which he was the sole owner; the party-wall right covering only the bare thickness of the masonry. To this claim La Semaine makes response that, although B is not obliged to pay any part of the expense of building or protect¬ ing that portion of the wall which he does not himself use, he cannot prevent his neighbor from taking any reasonable means for preserving the upper portion of the masonry, provided he suf¬ fers no actual injury thereby. Moreover, since A pays the whole expense of the masonry above B's roof, it belongs to him, until B chooses to use and pay for half of it; and he is the sole judge of what steps may be necessary for protecting his property. This doctrine seems rational enough, but cases often occur where neighboring owners make unreasonable claims in regard to party waUs, and the example of an actual case may be of use.—American Architect and Building News. In London, as well as in New York, Chicago, and Boston, the past year has been one of great activity in building operations. According to the report of the Metropolitan Police quoted in the Builder, the number of houses erected in the city in 1880 was 24,945. Seventy miles of new streets were placed under the care of the police during the year. The increase of population is almost exclusively on the outskirts of the town; the interior parishes lose, both in the number of houses and of inhabitants, year after year. Thus the smaU district known as London City lost one- third of its population, and nearly one-third of its buUdings in the last ten years, and St, Giles, the Strand, Holborn, Shoreditch, Westminister and Marylebone also show diminution, while Lainboth, Chelsea, Pulham, Hampstead, Isling - ton, CamberweU and Poplar, which^were not lonals^o quiet suburban villages, have 'gained