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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 57, no. 1466: April 18, 1896

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April 18, 1896 Record and Guide. 65:? ESTABUSHED-^ J\IWPH21'4^ 1868, Dp6Tri) 10 RfA^L ESTWt. BuiLOiKg %a(lTE(?TJl\E ,KobSE«OlD DEGQf^fllOlf, BUsii/ess Alto Themes Of CEftavl- 1Kter.es7. PRICE, PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published ererg f-liitnrday. Tblbphone, .--... Cortlandt 1370 Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-10 Vesey Street. J. T. LINDSET, Business Manager. "Entered at the Post-offlce at New York, JV. T., as second-class matter." Vol. LVII. APRIL 18, 189iJ. No. 1,466 The Record and Guide will furnish you with daily detailed reports of all huilding operations, compiled to suit your business spec'ilically, foi 14 cents a day. You are thus kept informed of the entire market for your goods. Ko guesswork. Every fact verified. Abundant capital and the thirty years'^experience of The Record and Guide (/itaranfce the com¬ pleteness and authenticity of this service. Send to 14 and 16 Vesey street for information. WITU SUPPLEMENl. THERE is a very wholesome improvemeDt iu biLsiness in all directions, aud that is all that need be said of the com¬ mercial situation after what we have beeu saying for weeks past, except, perhaps, to poiut out that the improvemeut has uot gone far enough to occaisiou any anxiety about its continuance. There is not the remotest prospect of a boom, but a wholesome advance in prices from the low level of this year is a sure thing. Business is beiug done iu a conservative manner. The prospect for a sound money declaration at the convention of the popular party of the moment, and the expectation that Congress will soon consist of innocuous scattered particles instead of a mischievous entity, as now, are all aflfecting men's niiuds favor¬ ably aud liberating business from the fears tiiat have oppressed it for months. The buying on the stock market is very good in quality, if somewhat light in quantity. Investments and the issues of properties that have or are closing up liquidation are the favorites. This is good judgment, because there is no doubt that the most money is in these things for some time to come. WITH a revenue $29,000,000 in excess of the estimates, $37,500,000 greater than in the previous year, and a surplus over expenditures of $21,000,000, Great Britain has every reason to be satistied. Ordinarily, the takiug of so much money out of the pockets of the taxpayers unneces-sarily would not be a matter for congr.itulatiou, but iu this case it is due to an unexpected increase in trade, and that is where the satisfac¬ tion comes in. On this side of the Atlautic, aud oh the pity of it! our relations with foreign Poweis are in clumsy hands, and our currency capable of being disturbed by time-serving politi¬ cians in Congress and ignorant cranks out of it, and these will not give our trade fair play; otherwise our exchequer would also be full to overflowing. It creates some bitterness in the mind to see it, but the fact has to be admitted that Europe is enjoying a renewed prosperity that the United States ought to share, but does not, in the full degree that it is entitled to do, simply because its public aflfairs are in the hands of men who cannot be trusted to declare for what is best for the nation, but rather for eftects on the minds of the crowd, who, while they elect Presidents, are best swayed by ,appeals to their passions rather than to their reason. However, to return to the condi¬ tion of things in Europe, despite the stop put to the floating of new ventures in South Africa, the new capital applications for the first quarter of the year in Great Britain were larger than for any similar period since 1892. The reports of the great French banking companies show an increase of business in the past year, but this, as a rule, has not produced increased divi¬ dends. There has been no rush of colonists to Madagasc,3,r, though 40,000 applications have been received for positions under the government in the island. Berlin financial quarters have relapsed into dullness since the issue of the Chinese loan ; general business, however, continues good throughout the Empire. The same state of things esi.sts at Vieuna and in Austria-Hungary. The Russian government is uudoubtedly in the market for gold with which to create a gold standard. It has already made considerable accuniulations of the precious metal and has coined 750,000,000 rubles worth of new gold coins. It is not anticipated that in obtaining further supplies anything -will be done that will disturb the markets. It is more than probable that this country will be relied upou for what is wanted. The Sherman law made easier the Austria-Hungarian currency reform, and our adherence to our own " original" currency system may facilitate a similar movement in Russia. TTJE'regret to see that the bill permitting the storing of trucks ' ' in the streets has been passed by the Senate. It is a fact needing no demonstration that the streets are not proper places in which to store trucks or anything- else. Their occupation in this or any other similar way is a violation of the statutory and implied law that the public has a right to free and unimpeded passage through auy thoroughfare, aud the granting of privi leges of this kind is favoring the few and injuring the many. It is true the bill provides that truckmen may store their trucks in the streets ouly from 6 p. m. of oue day until 8 a. m. of the next aud on Sundays, but we know very well that if the practice is allowed at all that it will endure at midday as well as at mid¬ night. Who is to see that each truck is taken away at 8 A. m. each niorniug. or that it is not stored before 6 p. m. iii the even¬ ing ? We know very well that such limitations are impractica¬ ble. Tliere is just uow a rage for getting obstructions onto the streets. If all the bills now uuder consideration at Albiiny for assisting bootblacks to occupy the sidewalks, merchauts to ex¬ pose their goods in front of their stores aud tiucknien to occupy the roadways are passeil our streets will be as choked up as they were before Colonel Waiing entered upon his very vigor¬ ous aud proper crusade to terminate such nuisances. There will be the same iuducemeiits to the growth of corruption in the public service iu connection with the regulation of these privi¬ leges as existed prior to two years ago. What begins as a gratuitous privilege will end by beiug something to be got only by payment in au illicit way, and vrc will h.ive to do over agaiu what was doue by the agitatiou that brought forth the Lexow investigatiou. We (h> uot wish to see the making of a living rendered harder for shoeblacks, truckmen or any other honest part of the community, however humble, but they have no right to encumber the streets with their implements of trade any more thau the more prosperous. But the bill is only osten¬ sibly for Ihe relief of these. The streets are for traffic and not for trade, and if any one is allowed on the stieets for the latter purpose it should be only iu the most limited and restricted way. As for the truckmen, they seem to have got aloug very well without the use of the streets in the past year or two, and it must be admitted by any imiiartial observer that the streets have got aloug much better without tbem. Moreover, the sus¬ picion will arise that it is not the poor truckman whom the bill is most directly intended to beuetit, but the rich brewer and others equally opulent who use vehicles for the delivery of their goods throughout the city, and who are perfectly able to pay for the truck storage they require. ri-HE clumsy attempt to give to some scheming individuals -»- hiding behind nonentities control of Central Park below 65th street for exhibition purposes—whether Barnum shows or such like, we do not know—d isclo.ses one of the worst abuses that exists at Albany. The bill il self does not deserve any attention, because if the Legislature was insane enough to pass it neither the Ma.vor of the city nor the Governor of the State could pos¬ sibly approve it, aud it wmild the-eby fail of Ihe ueces.sary con¬ stitutional indorsements. It is not probable, now that it has received public attention, that the bill will ever be heard of again. What dots deserve attention is the fact that the bill could pass through the Senate into a committee and be there a fortnight withoutitsexistencebtingknownoutsideof a few con- spinators who were concerned in getting it through if the fates were propitious to evil doing. It may be .singular that any body of seemingly sane men could think they could pass a meas¬ ure of such importance without public attention being called to it