Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 42, no. 1071: September 22, 1888

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September 28, 1888 Record and Guide. 1129 DeV&JEI) to KE^L EsrWE, BuiLOIf/c Ap-Cif ITECTJI^E .HoilsnfOlD UEODiVTlOtJ. BUsiiJess aiIdThemes of Ge;Jei^I Ij>(T€i\esi ESTABLISHED-^fAARpHSIti^ 1868.^ PRICE, PER VEAR IIV ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Fid)lished every Saturday. TELEPHONE, - ■ - JOHN 370. fJommunlcations should be addi-essed to CW. SWEET, 191 Broadway. 7. T. LINDSEY, Bitsiness Manager. Vol. XLII. SEPTEMBER 22, 1888. No. 1,071 The past has been a lively week in WaU etreet. The "bears" had their innings during- the first few days, due to the paeaing of the St. Paul dividend, but they misunderstood the situation and oversold the market. The "bulls" saw their chance and turned upon them in St. Paul, Northwest and Lake Shore, and gored the unfortunate "bears" unmercifully. The market is undeniably strong, due very largely to confident and persistent European buying. It is foreigners who have made our market for the last two years, and they are now buying more eagerly than ever. This fact, with our immense corn crop and the deficient harvests abroad, would seem to insure a bull campaign from this time forth iu our stock market; but it would be a very serious matter if anything should happen to scare European investors and speculators. They have had excited markets abroad for a long time and a collapse is among the possibilities. -----------a----------- The passage by Congress of an appropriation of $100,000 to stamp out the yellow fever plague may not be constitutional, according to the strict constructionists; but, nevertheless, it was the right thing to do. Congress is empowered to provide for the general welfare, and there is a natiu-al instinct in all nation to meet national perils by \^ielding the power of the government to overcome them. The civii war was waged on the part of the nation without any con¬ stitutional warrant. We are taking the same attitude towards pestilence, and were a famine to tkfeaten us there would be no hesitancy in using exti-a constitutional powers to relieve the suffer¬ iug and feed the hungry. Parchment provisions in such cases are like the weak strands with which Dehlah bound Samson. The yellow fever has reached the iiroportions of a national calamity; it threatens to paralyze business through aU the summer States, and will undoubtedly affect the value of Southern securities. It will put a stop also for a time to the movement of the great army of invalids from the Northern States, who periodically seek winter homes in the semi-tropical regions south of Virginia and along the gulf coast. This wiU interfere with the habits of hundreds of thousands of families, which usually try to escape the rigors of our Northern climate in midwinter. It also seems pretty certain that our Nortbei-n sanitariums have a prosperous season ahead. It will be found that Lakewood, Long Branch, Cape May, Fortress Monroe and other winter resorts will be crowded as they never have been in recent yeai-s. The house of Morgan & Co., of London, must be building up a gigantic fortune for the head of the concern. It has reorganized the West Shore, the Reading, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Chesapeake & Ohio very successfully, and iias made enormous profits in each case. The last enterprise proposed is the rescuing of the St. Paul corporation from the speculative directors who have given that property so bad a name in financial circles. There is a suspicion that tbe Vanderbilts may _be back of the new Morgan deal so as to get an awkward competitor, for business in the West out of the way. Intrinsically the St. Paul property is a splendid one. It embra.ces five thousand miles of road, most of which is located in a fertile and growing country. Its stock and bonded debt does not average much over $30,000 a mile. Properly managed its common stock ought to sell for par and pay over 6 per cent, interest. But what we started out to say was, that vast as have been the fortunes accu¬ mulated by other bankers they will be all dwarfed by the enormous ones heaped up by the London house of J. S. Morgan & Co. The history of this great banking establishment is another instance of the tendency of all modern business to become concentrated in one great concern. A quarter of a century ago the jn-oflts now made by Banker Morgan would have been distributed among twenty or thii-ty rival houses. Legislative enactments intended to oppose this tendency toward the concentration of wealth in few hands or in Ti'usts will prove as futile as the famous and perhaps mythical " Pope's bull against the comet." be chosen on the sixth of nest November will hare tm unuBual amount of patronage, and the local " bosses " are determined this time to divide the offices in the way that will do them the most good. Tammany has undoubtedly more votes than either the County Democracy or the Republicans, and if Abram Hewitt is out of the way they could easily elect some one pledged to divide tho offices up among the " faithful." The Republican " machine" will, as usual, be run in the interest of Tammany. It will have a sti-aight ticket on the plea that it will help tbe National ticket; but on election day the "Dummy" candidate put up for Mayor will be slaught¬ ered. To flank their rivals the weakened County Democracy pro¬ pose to run Abram Hewitt, hoping that there will be enough Repub¬ licans and Independent Democrats to elect him over the Tammany candidate. The Sun warmly supports Hewitt, probably because he is not on good terms with President Cleveland; but the World newspaper, the Irish people and many of the active labor leaders are opposed to Hewitt. Altogether it looks as if we are to have a mighty interesting municiijal canvass. The local politicians are hard at work to secure the Mayoralty prize in the coming election. The chief magisti-ate of this city to The story of Confidential Clerk Bedell's swindling operations, as told in yesterday's papers, is simply startling. Tbe magnitude of the thefts, coupled to the fact that tbe work was done in the office of one of the leading firms of real estate lawyers—Shipman, Barlow, Larocque & Choatti—almost takes tbe breath away of any¬ one who knows how easily it all might have been prevented. With¬ out any circumlocution the firm could have prevented Bedell's tliiev- ing by subscribing to The Record and Guide, which publishes a list of all the mortgages recorded in New York and adjoining coun¬ ties. It would have been au easy task for one of the firm to check weekly the mortgages which had been sent to be recorded with those actually recorded, and a failure to find one or more would have led to the discovery of Clerk Bedell's plan. It seems to have been easy for Bedell to forge the seals and sig-natures of Registers, Commissioners of Deeds and Notaries to the mortgages, to give them every appea- ance of regularity, but it would have been impossible for him to seciu-e the pubhcation in these columns of the fraudulent mortgages, unless they were actually recorded, without immediate detection. This leads us to the point where wc are in a position to say, after reading tbe names of tbe builders used by Bedell in liis nefarious work, that if the mortgages had been pubhshed the forgeries would have been discovered at once, as many of the persons are close readers of The Record and Gdide, and even if they were not, the fact of their mortgaging property would bave been brought to their notice by material men, who watch our columns to keep posted concerning their customers' standing. Messrs. Shipman, Barlow, Larocque & Choate have saved six dollars a year for several years by not taking The Record AND Guide and they have lost over a quarter of a miUion dollars. The following letter from Lawyer Charles H, Glover, relative to forged deeds, explains itself: fobged deeds. 99 Nassau Street, New York, I Sept. IOtb, 1874. f Editor Real Estate Record: Sir—I think it my duty to say to you that it was by meaus of your pub¬ lications alone that my clieuts and myself were put upou inquiry in respect to the fraud recently attempted upon tne estate of Isaac Young by the recording of a forged deed. I have been a subscriber to and a reader of The Record from the time of its first issue, and have found it very useful. And it was in consequence of a prompt persual of your uumber ol last Satm-day that I was able to detect the crime which had beeu committed, and to put the officers of justice upon the track of tbe criminals. Had it not been for your publication the deed would have been obtained from the Register's oflice, my clients' title would have been clouded by ifc, and we should have bad no duo whatever to fche perpetrators of the wrong. I am, youi' obedient servant, Charles H. Glover. After reading the foregoing letter oui- readers can judge for them¬ selves as to the value derived from a careful perusal of om- columns containing conveyances, mortgages, etc., as well as plainly see that the statement as to how the Bedell forgeries could have beeu avoided is not exaggerated. _----—m---------- If it is true, as foreign rumors intimate, that Prince Bismarck is about to resign his position as Prime Minister of the German Empire, it means that the young Kaiser proposes to do the ruling; himself or has determined upon a line of pohcy which the Chan¬ cellor disapproves, The great reviews, mock battles and the sti'icter discipline of the German army can have but one meaning. The new Emperor has determined upon war, and the contemplated blow has not the approval of Bismarck. It seems hardly likely that hostilities will break out before winter, but it is safe to assume that the great armies of Europe will be in motion by next spring. If this forecast as to the foreign situation is correct, it would be well for Wall street to be careful. Dm-ing the past year there has been a lively speculation in railroad and bank sliares on the leading bourses of Europe; indeed, our own market has been sustained by the heavy purchases of foreign capitalists. While a foreign war would eventuaUy benefit the trade of this country, its first effect would be to create a panic on our stock exchange, for, not only would European buying cease, but there would be a flood of Aaaeri^