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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 54, no. 1378: August 11, 1894

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■ Ansiist 11, 1894 Record and Guide. 193 \ ESTASUSHED ^ M.AR,CH 21V> 1668. Div&teD to F^lEstaie,Building Architecture.HouseiIoidDeqquatioi*, B^;sl^/Ess ^^b Themes of Gsi-Iei^I 1Ktcr.es7 . PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TcLEi'Ho.vE,......Cortlandt 1370 Communications should be addressed to C, W, SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. J, 1. LINDSEY. Business Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washingtox Street, Opi'. Post Office. " En leredal Uie Post-office at New Tork.y. T,, as second-class matter." Vol. liv. AUGUST 11, 189-1. No. 1,378 For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately followiuQ Yew Jersey records (poifc 213). WHETHER slimiilated or not bv an autit-ipation of an entl to tarifl distiission, business continues to improve iu nearly all the jaeat lines. Jobbers report a sustained improve¬ ment in demaud. Mauafactnrers of woolen and other gooda in the .'Janie lines are in receipt of a satisfactory number of duiiH- cate orders. Stoclcs of pig inm are decreasing, notwith-standing tliat the furnaces are increasiog tlieir output. These facts are important and eucoiiragiug:, especially as they are accompanied by evidence that retailers have uot yet departed from their policy of limiting orders to actual needs. So far there are no signs of stocking up, con.sequently the improvement in demand represents the wants of the consumer almo.st entirely. In the stock market the securities of the old lliehmond Terminal and of the Soutliern Kailroad, which is to take its place, are tbe features, and will coutiuue to be so as long as general conditions ave favorable to an advance. Crop news continues to atfect the gi-ain market and the grain-carrying roads. No doubt serious damage has been done all louud ; this should be felt most iii the prices for graiu, as it, is a question whether the advance in those prices will not operate to offset a large part of the losses in freights that the shorter crop will entail ou the railroads. So far people who liave goue short of the Grangers on crop news in tlic past week have not made much money even on papei-, and as the short interest is estimated to be very large any attempt at covering should put up quotations oonsiderably. AVall Street interprets recent tarift developments to mean the failure of the Wilson Bill, but while that might be the best thing that could occur at tho moment, it must not be forgotten how the adminis¬ tration came out of the silver muddle at a time wbeu it looked U) outsiders as if tot:il repeal was impossible and compromise the wisest coni'se. The offer of free sugar from the .Senate Cju- ferees lias about it such an appearance of desperate bluff that it gives ground for the suspicion that they feel their position grow¬ ing coiitenable. CORE A, or Korea as the Bureau of Statistics chooses to spell it, does not do a very large trade with the Uuited States, according to the report of that bureau. Her exports to us in the year ended June 30, 1893, were, valued at .^79; the previous year .she had eent us ipGOS worth of goods, all free of duty. She is not specially reported a.s taking anything from us, conse- quently all we send is probably missionaries. Indirectly we probably do some trading in Oorea, through China and Japan, but our commercial interest in the country is very small. The xmpleasantness that has broken out betweeu Chiuaand Japan over this peninsula is regarded as likely to bring the coutestiug nations into the European markets ;is bor¬ rowers of money and purchasers of .supplies, and iu that way help to relieve the stagnation in business. Neither Japiin uor China has any foreign debt to speak of. The former's oulstaud- ing extei-nal loans amount to only $3,000,000 and the hitter's to $-5,000,000. The English investor is counting the co.st of investments in American breweries, where indeed the losses have been very heavy, but it is wrong to put all the blame for this on Americans, because the market here gave good indications tbat the properties were not what they were represented to be, and the deceits that were practised were mostly devised by the company mongers within call of Thieadneedle street. It is probable that the exception favoring cotton goods from tbe general import duty in India will be soon removed. The 5 per cent duty on all cotton imported will not only help the Indian treasury, bnt also tbe manufacturers of cotton goods there. Berlin and Vienna have both seen more, activity on their bour,ses as a result of improving comiitions, though there is very little uew iu that direction that can. be specifically mentioned outside of the uudcistandiiig Ihat tho Austrian government bas acquired all the gold it needs to carry out the reform of (he currency. 'l"ho people of Austria-Huugary seem to have the same ridiculous objection to the use of silver on account of its weight !is our own people have, and a movement is on foci lookiug to the retention of part of the small bills. Money is plentiful everywhere, and the predicfciou is renewed by European financial .journals that gold should come this way soon. The proposed uew Western Australian loau of $7,250,- 000 brings out the fact that that province has a debt of ovei $200 per capita, which-vvjll bo increased about $100 a liead if the new loau is negotiated. What this means will be better iiuder.stood when it is stated that the debt of Great Britain is only about $00 per head of population. The heat of the foreign holders of Greek bonds is explained by the reiiort that Premier Tricoupis' plau of settlcineut witli them is to scale down interest nearly 70 per cent to make a sinking fund out of which to com - pnUorily retire the bonds themselves. A Danger Point in Keal Estate Ooerations. TIIERE is a point in our system of real estate operations thai is insufficiently guarded. Pour or hve cases have comt- under our observation recently inwhich serious loss has bee» incurred because tho parties interested failed to accurate! v locate the property. In some eases survevors were employed and in others theproperty was taken by mere oral desiguatior. The case which was reported in December last, in Bradhurst avenue, where a woman bought, or supposed she was Imying, an unfinished flat, and learned to her dismay after she had Iiuished it that the ]iroperty actually couveyed to her was a vacant lot nearby, is still fresh in everybody's recollection. A year or so ago, in a board meeting of a corporation which makes loans on real estate security, one of the directois remarked that it would be au easy matter for a designing per.son to swindle all such corporations through this unguarded poiuf. The same corporation has jnst been made the victim of just suc!i an operation. -'V buildinu-loau was made to a woman who had recently purchased a lot at auction. She supposed she had pui - chased lot No. 4.7, and made her application for a loan accord¬ ingly. Tbe deed she received was for lot No. 49 andthe con¬ veyancer tor the corporatiou made the mortgage accordingly. The woman, all unwittingly, had her builders put up the twj Inmses ou lot No. 47, and the appraisers for the association, als:. unwittingly, certified to the progress of the work and gave cei ■ tifieates for payments on tho loan until all was paid and tbij houses completed. Then the real owner of lot No. 47 made him.self: known, aud, baving the advantage of the woman and the corporation, made theui pay him a fancy price for his lot. In this case tho mistake was clearly without design. But in the same manuer it would have been quite possible for the owner of two or more lots to borrow money for building pur¬ poses on one of thera. aud to put np his buildiug ou oue of the others, thus leaving the corporatiou with avacant lot as security for its loan. Thc^e cases would be more difficult of accomplish¬ ment in a densely-populated section than they would iu tbu suburbs, where there is land enough to juggle with. But eveu in the most densely built-up sections there is room for expensivu mistakes, as has just been demonstrated in New York. A tirm of bnilding operators, of considerable experience in such operations, some time ago began the construction of a largo building in the dry-goods district, in New York City. They engaged a surveyor, one of tho foremost of the profession, to "survey" the plot, giving him the legal description, as con¬ tained in the deed. In time they received from him a diagram and the plans for the buildiug were drawn and the contracts fcr the construction given out. The mason obtainetl from thcsui- veyor an oral designation of the corners of the plot. Thus far the story is undisputed, hut at this point au issue of fact is raised by the surveyor aud builder. It appears that on the .southeast corner of tbe plot there stood a tall fragment of a party and rear wall, forming an angle. The masou avers thai tlie surveyor designated with his finger the inner, plastered augli; ot this fragment of wall as the corner of the plot on winch he- was to build, aud he went ahead accordingly. The surveyor aver?.' that be told the builder that thisinner angle was eightinchesnortli of the southeast corner of the plot. But the diagram of tbe plot furnished by the surveyor did not show the fragment ct wall in existence, and it will be generally maintaiued, wo believe, that it should hav© shown it. However, the rear walls of the building were found to be eight inches too far to tho north, and encroaching that much upon the lot ad.joiuing on thii north. Fortuoately the mistake was discovered before the walls had risen mueh above the maiu floor. The mason is uow engaged in tearing down the north wall preliminary to its recou- .^tructiou, and extending the south wall to cover the gore, whicii tapers from eight inehes in Avidth at the rear down to uothin.; at the front of the lot. The question of re.sponsibility for tlii mistake iu this case is an interesting one—bub too complicated