Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 48, no. 1218: July 18, 1891

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July 18,1891 Record and Guide. 75 g^- - established'^ J^M^pHaiti"^ 1868.^ Dev&teO to F^L Estwe . BuiLoiKc A^ciIitectjiv .Household DEOca^noH. Bilsit/Ess Alto Theme.'' of GEKErv^L 1;«(tei\esi Qmm. Haiir^iasa. hesitation in advising any large expansion of old for a little time to come. PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. fELEPHONE . . - . COKTLANDT 1370. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J, I. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLVIII JULY 18, 1891. No. 1,218 The 'publication offices of The Record and Guide have been removed to Nos. 14 and 16 Vesey street, over The Mechanics' and Traders' Exchange, a few jeet west of Broadway. The index to Volume XLVII of The Record and Guide is is¬ sued with this number of the journal, and subscribers who may not receive a copy should report the fact to the office of publication, Nos. 14-16 Vesey street. THE NE I MAGAZINE. • WitMn a few days now will be issued the first number of the new illustrated quarterly magazine, The Architectural Record. Readers of The Record and Guide, and those who have received our circular letter, who desire to become subscribers to the new magazine should lose no time in sending in their names and addresses to the offices of publication, Nos. 14 and 16 Vesey street, New York City. The reception which has been given to the new enterprise by the architectural profession, the builders of this country and ihe general public has been most encouraging. The new magazine will start with thousands of readers in every State in the Union, and the large cities have shown an unesopected inter¬ est in the new periodical. We are desirous, of course, of having the subscription list as large as possible for the first number, and in order that delivery may be prompt, all intending subscribers are requested to send us a postal card at once. The flrst number of the magazine mil contain " The Revival of Romanesque," by Montgomery Schuyler, with thirty full-page illustrations; "An ' American Style' of Architecture," by BarrFerree; "Architectural Fads," by George Keister; the " New York Building Law," by Will¬ iam J. Fryer, Jr.; " Terra Cotta," by Jas. Taylor; " Byzantine Architecture," by Prot. Aitchison, and other articles, editorial departments, etc., with numerous illustrations of recent de¬ signs for office buildings, residences, clubs, churches, country houses, electrical fixtures, furniture, interiors, etc. The magazine viill be printed on the finest paper, and no expense or pains have been spared to make it the leading architectural paper in the country. The annual subscription price is $1. THE present market for stocks may be very aptly described as a brokers' market, inasmuch as its movements are about suf- cient only to pay the brokers' commissions. Whatever character¬ izing tendency there may be in it is towards lower prices. A nar¬ row market is not the one the public like, and business cannot be attracted towards it until its movements are guided by strong hands which give some life and excitement to it. While it drifts in this fashion quotations are likely to be lower, and whatever business muse be done on the Exchange is likely to be done at lower- Jing figures. Louisville & Nashville and Burlington & ; Quincy have pressed on the market somewhat, and if any large selling movement can be induced into those two issues a considerable decline all round is sure to foUow. ' There are, too, stories afloat that all is not right with some of the Villard Specialties and some of Inman-Brice-Thomas issues ; the latter are certainly selling at figures which proclaim that some time friends are treating tbeiu with marked neglect; nor are quotations for the former the most satisfactory. Reports from London are gloomy, and that fact, coupled with a new shipment of gold, even though of a small amount, while Exchange rates are so low, has anything but a reHssuring effect. We are, too, approaching the time when this centre is likely to feel the effects of the movement of money to the interior. These effects may not be serious, because of the long-time warning everyone has had. Most bankers have availed themselves of the ample opportunities ' given them to secure their money suflScient to supply such of their needs as they could foresee for the next few months ; but there is likely to be great caution in undertaking new business and IF the increase of the revenue of a country is an index to pros¬ perity, Great Britain ought at the present time be in a fairly satisfactory ccftidition. The total collections for the last quarter aggregated £31,914,100, against £21,468,600 in the corresponding period in 1890—an increase of £445,500. This is a far better showing than Mr. Goschen anticipated; but it is not likely that the rate of increase will be conttnued. The condition of trade is not improving, and it is possible that before the end of the year the revenue will lose tbe impetus it received during the past two years of speculative business activity. On the whole, the best authorities are inclined to believe that the character of tbe half year has not been such as to encourage anything but great caution. The prices of the principal commodities during that period has been downwards. The " Index Number" of the Economist representing the combined prices of twenty-two leading commodities now stands at 2,187. This is lower not only than at the beginning of the half-year, but also than at this time last year; and it is necessary to go back to July, 1889, to find prices at a lower level than at present. The result of movements in prices during the last half-year has been to reduce the "Index Number" by a little over 17 per cent. It is noticeable, however, that while most commodities have fallen in value, food stuffs on the whole have risen—a change due, of course, to the threatened scarcity of European harvests. The French government has come forward with an elaborate and com¬ plicated scheme for creating a Workmen's National Pension Fnnd —similar to that already created in Germany. The basis of the project is a daily contribution of five to ten centimes by workers of either sex, to which tbe employer must add a like sum, and in addition the State would contribute two-thirds of the total subscribed by the worker aud employer. Payment is to begin at the age of 25. and is to continue to the age of 55. It is calculated that the payment of 5 centimes per day by the workman and as much by the master, with the addition of two-thirds of 10 centimes by the State, invested at 4 per cent with compound interest, would produce at the end of thirty years a capital representing the value of a life annuity of 300 francs from the age of 55. With a daily payment of 10 centimes the annuity would be 600 francs, the maxi¬ mum contemplated by the bill. The calculation is made on the supposition ih^t workmen are employed on 290 days in the year. The Berlin market is sinking into a rather depressing dullness, the change" being but few and for the most part for the worse. THERE is something illusive about a " popular movement," or else the New York Times has been deceiving us. In reading tho^e articles about "public indignation" and the "stern deter¬ mination of outraged taxpayers," everyone must have felt that the tenant cy of the Elevated Road in Battery Park had at last become a matter of an hour or two, and the moment might arrive at any time when popular feeling, thitherto kept in restraint by the sleepy decorum of the Times, would no longer feel satisfied in expressing itself in fabricated anonymous letters and fake mass meetings, but would burst into revolutionary activity, tear down the elevated structure in the park and vindicate the inalienable right of a few score of tramps, servant girls and time-burdened individuals to an unobstructed view of the archi¬ tectural marvels of State street. Trivial, fortuitous circumstances have before this proved fatal to great schemes. An inopportune storm played havoc with the Armada, and the recent hot weather and the humidity must have enervated the feelings of the multi¬ tude as to the Battery Park " grab," so that they have left Jay Gould a little longer in his ill-gotten position; —and, concurrently, several hundred thousand travelers in the enjoyment of some¬ what mor^ comfortable, and somewhat speedier, transportation facilities than would be theirs if the park were wholly given up to the tramps. Even the Aldermen back-slid into a favorable atti¬ tude towards the elevated railroad Ogre, and it seems that nothing is now left to the few individuals in the Times office who have charge of the Public's indignation, but to bottle up the winds for a time—Ulysses-like—and make for the sea-shore for their summer vacation. In the Fall there may be a better opportunity for their slightly che' ky operations. ---------m THE failure of this last onslaught upon the Elevated Road illu¬ minates that somewhat vsgue subject which we hear of from time to time—the "power of the press." For several weeks past all the daily newspapers of the city, with the exception of the Sun, have been foaming at the mouth about the terrible iniquity com¬ mitted against the 1,700,000 people of this city because the Elevated Road uses a few feet of the border land of Battery Park for the ben¬ eflt of its patrons. From the "scare lines" one might reasonably suppose that a little revolution was on foot against the Manhattan Company. Petitions were displayed, mass meetiugs concocted, indignation poured forth by the column. Readers were assured