Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: no. 56, no. 1434: September 7, 1895

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September 7,1895 Kecord and Lruide. 303 ____)} . „ . ,^ ESTABUSHED*^ (^CHSli^ 1868. Oev6tij) to RfA,L Estate . BuildiKo %crfnz(nuRp J^ajsntfoiD DEOdt^in.. Busik'ess Atfo Themes of GtifeR^l ItfTERf*!, PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TBLBFHOMB,......COBTIANDT 1370 iConmunloatlona should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. , I. LINDSEY. Busittess Manager. Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Street, Opp.. Post Obhioe, " Entered at the fost-offlce at y&c York, JT. r., as secondrelass matter." Vol. LVI. SEPTEMBEK 7, 1895. No. 1,434 LF gold shiyiuents arc to uflect stock market prices the time has not yet come. The reaction seen at the close ot this .eck was no more than would be natural at any time atter a. I'eek's activity on rising quotations. Thei'e are no new develop- aents to account for the sustained strength of prices. People re optimistic where they were pessimistic before. Money is ilentiful and trade is good in all parts of the couutry east of ;hicago, and there are reasonable expectations that it will soon le better west of that point; jobbers in the big towns already eport an increasing demaud in many lines as a result of a large :ora crop beingplaced beyond danger from climatic changes. iovf cheerful is the spirit that is animating people with money lowadays is shown by the high piices paid for investment lectirities, and indeed some that are not strictly investment esues but liave the iavor of buyers by reason of their activity lud consequent prominence. The advances in some of the Eric ssues illustrate the last part of the foregoing remark. The ji'operty is beiug reorganized for the fifth time ; on each of the irevious four occasions, as with the present, it was thought that I. basis had been reached from which the road would never get nto trouble again. But this fact is overlooked "or forgotten. There has always been a speculative charm about Erie notwith¬ standing its disreputable career, which it seems stilt able to exert and which will probably put the iirices of its securities iiway beyond intrinsic worth, aa it has done before. There are many similar cases which exertlike induenccsln times of specu¬ lative fever. The thoughtful, however, ponder on the situation liud wonder how it cau be what it is with the national treasury depending for its gold reserve on the voluntary contributions of a charitable syndicate, the future demands on which as well as its ability to meet them being alike impossible to measure, while the man who does not give any such serious matters a thought goes with the stream and makes money. ME. CHAMBERLAIN has begun the unfolding of his policy which is to unite the British colonies and possessions to the mother country in iudissoluble bonds. A few days ago he told a deputation of Liverpool merchants who waited upon him that he believed state aid should be aflbrded for public works all over the Empire. Mauy of the colonies should he regarded ae undeveloped estates which can never be developed without Imperial assistance. This opeus up an illimitable prospect for tbe investment of capital under goverumeut guarantees. That he spoke with the knowledge and consent of Lord Salisbury smd tho other members of the Cabinet is highly probable, as it has since been reported that a committee of experts is to be appointed to assist the Secretary for the Colonies with their advices in laying out a plan to ett'ectuate his policy. A blue- book ou the development and resources of India has just appeared, and as its preparation muat have been ordered by the late administration, it shows how desirous statesmen of all par¬ ties ave of seeing British capital more concentrated on the upbuilding of the Empire through the development of its colos¬ sal if scattered resoiu'ces. This book states that during the past Bis years nearly 2,000,000 acres of land have heen profitably added to the area of irrigation. One irrigatory work, the Periyar project, is intended to conduct the waters of the Periyar River, by a cutting and tunnel, from the western side of a lofty mountain range which enjoys an abundant rainfall to the east- em aide where the rainfall is deficient. In the same six years 4,117 miles of railroad have been opened, the number of cotton mills increased from 89 to 136, the jute miUs from 24 to 28, the number of rice-cleaning mills from 43 to 58, the sawmills from 41 to 69, and the paper mills from 4 to 8. The output of coal was 1,388,000 tons in 1887 aud 2,,529,000 tons in 1893. The increase of the coal product is drawing attention to the luagniti- cent deposits of iron and other ores. The amount of gold mined in Mysore rose fiom $1,415,000 in 1888 to $7,250,000 in 1893. There are oil fields both in India and Buiinah yet to be ex¬ ploited and large areas still to he reclaimed from the jungle and devoted to the cultivation of wheat, cotton, rice, tea, coffee aud many other things. While the political coudition of Turkey is occupying a great deal of the public notice, that country's finances naturally come in for some share of attention, with the result of forcing the conclusion that financial complications will come to add trouble to a aituatiou already sufiiciently embar¬ rassing. Turkey of all nations haa been a most inveterate bor¬ rower, without regarding iu the least the prices paid for pecuniary accommodatious, so that the heavy expenses that have to he incurred owing to the unsettled condition of the so-called Christian provinces must be very burdensome on an exchequer which rarely or never has had enough money fi-om legitimate chaunels in any one year to meet that year's obligations. France continues to buy Kaffii- miDing shares in spite of the expostula¬ tions of the French press, both serious and comic. In Germany the iron trade is becomiug active like the textile trades, but grain prices are going down, creating fears of renewed agi-arian agitation. Austria has issued a statement of the national fiuauces which is satisfactory, iu that it shows that all obliga¬ tions have been readily met by income in the past twenty-five years?. THE place of the bicycle in tho dwelling or apartment house ' has atlast come up for settlement through the ordinary channel, the law court. It was inevitable that some property- owners would object to having wheels brought into their houses and equally inevitable in the prevalence of tbeir use that the owners would insist on a place being found for them. An actiou has heen begun in the Supreme Court to restrain the owners of an iiptoWQ apartment house from prohibiting the daughter of one of their tenants from keeping a bicycle on the premises. This will serve to set property owners thinking what policy they Avill take toward the whirling "bike." The wisest course would be to make some provisions for the bicycles of tenants and of their friends who visit tiiem on their machines when not in use. In view of the rights of tenants to take their persoual effects into their apartments, it is unlikely that the Courts will discriminate against the wheels, and property-owners will serve their own interests by providing separate accommodations lor them, or tolerating them in the basements as they do baby-car¬ riages, ratherthan risk damage to their hAllway-walls hy having them carried thi-ough their houses. Geueral as is the use of the bicycle now, it has not reached the limit of its popularity. A uew generation will see every one, without limit of age, condi¬ tion or sex, using a wheel in some form, and we look soon to see the live property-owner advertising as one of the attractions of his houses or apartments, " bicycle racks, chains and padlocks in tho basement." THERE ia a man who has discovered why people—meaning of course some people, because he cannot be referring to the two millions who live contentedly within the shores of the three rivers—prefer to live io the country instead of in New York City. This discovery he has communicated to an evening newspaper. It is that a large proportion of the " middle grade " apartment houses are in a coudition which the sanitaiy code describes as "dangerous to life and detrimental to health." These houses, this gentleman says, "are aboat as unsafe for occupation as the receiving vaults of Greenwood Cemetery." Let one dog bark and there is aoon a canine concert. This com¬ munication was followed hy others, all like the first anonymous, luoueit was asaerted that "more than one thousand so-called desirable apartment houses have been examined {by the writer presumably) duriug the past twelve years and of those more than two-thirds have heen rejected on account of insufficient light and ventilation or unsafe plumbing and drainage." These are terrible charges against the builders of apartment houses, but on examination one will be surprised that they are not sup¬ ported by the recoids of health aud the bills of mortality. If thefirstof these statements was true New York City would be plague ridden and its death rate equal to that of an Asiatic city in times of cholera. The second writer must have beeu hard to please, if ainoug the 333 houses that were not rejected because " of insufficient light aud ventilation or unsafe plumbing and drainage," he could not find in one in which to rest from his search. It is ridiculous to say that any one cause is driving people from town to country or even to say that one predominates. In¬ creased aud cheapened traveling facilities form an importaut oue. The writers of these letters may be surprised to learn that there is a considerable numher of people who prefer to live away from town. Others are being driven into the suburbs "by the encroachments of business on one-time residence districts. Bettered circumstances carry a good many away from the poorer and reduced circumstances a good many from the richer quarters iuto the country. The fact that the same money ynll piovide the seclusion and conveniences of a detached house ivith a patch of garden in the country, which \i'ould obtain only an apart¬ ment in the city, determines many to accept the former. All