Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 64, no. 1649: October 21, 1899

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October 21, 1899. RECf)FD AND GTJIDE. 585 before this has reached any considérable volume provision for th» annuai settlements will hâve to be made. ■S-^yô) ESTABLISHED-^ h'.ARCH 21^.'*^ 18G8, DEvÔTîfl 10 HFA.LEstate.BuiLoi^ %ch(iT£eTUiîE.KoiiSE:ifou)DE6ûîtATiO[f. BdsitJEss Ai^Thèmes or Gï>!ei\aL 1Kîeres-[. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. PubHsltcd every Saturday. TELEPHONE, Cortlandt 1370. Commualcatlons should be addresaed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. /. 1. LINDSEY, Business Manager. •• BiiUred at the Post-OÇiee at Jfew Foric, N. Y., assceond-class matter." Vol. LXIV. OCTOBER 21, 1S99. No. 1649 OWING to rather larger professional dealings than we hâve been accustomed to see of late, the Stock Market took on a more lively air this week. There was some public interest distinctly observable. Such as there was found expression in promising issues that hâve held back from the gênerai advance, and whose gootl prospects force them on the attention of buyers, The professional dealings are, of course.guided by the prospective conditions of the money market. At the moment Europe may draw gold from us, although it is such a short time since it moved this way. Nothing could better illustrate the sharp demand that exists for loanabîe funds than this prompt call for balances when¬ ever they are created, either by trade or the manipulation of ex¬ change. The conditions of the money market for the near future dépends to a considérable extent upon Europe, which is likely to draw upon our market whenever it has the opportunity, Not only bave ordinary demands over there created scareity, but the extraordinary facts of the cutting off the Transvaal contribution ■to the world's supply of gold, and the necessity the British Gov¬ ernment will be under to become a borrower to meet war re- -quirements, wil! make this more severe. The conditions on the other side of the Atlantic will be more or less reflected on this, and correspondingly affect our spéculative, if not also our invest¬ ment, markets. Yesterday's war news gave encouragement to the London market, and the announcement of new developments of a favorable nature on this side, served to give tlie market (julte a confident tone. Y ERY little importance need be attached to the talk of a European coalition against Great Britain and in favor of the South African republics. Whatever progress may hâve been made towards an understanding, it will be baulked by officiai Germany playing the part towards Great Britain, that the latter officiai and civil played toward the United States at the outbreak of the war with Spain. Moreover, however d,esirous Russia and France may be to obstruct Great Britain, it is not out of any love for the Dutch in South Afriea, and if they contemplate a diversion in their favor, it is because of that ever dominant fac¬ tor in foreign politics, the prospective China trade. Like the rest of the world, they foresee ultimate victory for the British arms, but the Russian and French statesmen are also astute enough to see something more, and that a something inimical to their own interests. Tbe close of the Boer war, probably at the end of a year's campaigning, wili give Great Bi-itain a vétéran army of 50,000, or perhaps, 100,000, raen, under proved gênerais, who can be easily thrown into the Far East with the transport and commissary services that will hâve then been perfected, and practically m a position to dictate her own conditions in China, or at any point in Southern Asia, where her own interests may be threatened by her adversaries, who to-day are pre-emi- nently Russia and France. These are reflections that will bave an Important bearing upon the world's trade of the future, Of that of the présent it may be said to be a struggle to maintain the présent high-rate of activity with an insufficient supply of capital. The war has summariîy cut down the gold supply by a third, and to whatever extent increased production elsewhere can offset the loss of that of the Rand, its effect cannot be felt for some time; consequently, high rates for raoney must remain the order for some months to come, and the hope of really cheap capital banished into a distant future. The maintenance of the Bank of England's 5% rate shows that the comparative ease of the m'arket in the past week is regarded by the best authori¬ ties as only a peculiar phase likely to be short-lived. The European financial journals agrée în the opinion that i-ellef can¬ not be expected this year, and are non-committal as to the prob¬ able conditions at the opening of next. The movement of money has now. it is true, turned toward the centres of eirculatioa, but Building in the Philippines. ALTHOUGH the United States hâve uominally been in pos¬ session of the Philippine Islands since Aug. 13, 1S98, and our forces hâve aetually held Mamia and the suburbs since that time, still the average American pictures the country as a howling wilderness, and Manila as a rather extensive bamboo and tha:tched village, while the Filipino is supposed to run about with a curtain ring in his nose and a small thatched roof around his waist. These, at any rate, were very much t'he ideas of the writer until a year with the U. S. Engineers in Manila effected a complète revision of preconceived notions. From the co^nclusion of the Spanish eampaign on Aug. 13, 1898, till the breaking out of open hostilities with the Filipinos in February, the American au¬ thorities were chiefly engaged in organizing and running a pro- visional govemmenit, which, while aetually a military rule, should appear and work as much IJke a civil government as pos¬ sible, and in gênerai was modeled ou former Spanish Unes, as far as local laws and usages (including taxes!) were concerned. In this attempt to "bring order cut of chaos" it fell to my lot, as an architect, to organize and run the Department of Buildings and Public Lands as a branch of the Bureau of Licenses. In the gên¬ erai confusion of reconstruction, it soon became évident to the various department heads that they would bave to take the law into their own hands to a great extent, and in fact make the Iaw. as they groped their way, by the light of nature. But while the profession of "law maker" is not overcrowded, and may seem .attractive to ambitions youth, it is "not all jam," and those concerned in the civil government of Manila hâve doubtless, to- day, a great sympathy for Moses, Solon and Johm Y. McKane. The points which engaged attention in connection with the Manila Building Department were many, and included the or¬ ganizatlon of the Department and the adjusting of license fées and collection of same—the> classification of streets and buildingâ; methods of construction, sanitation, fire limits, and in fact a more or less intimate knowledge of the business conditions and daily life and habits of the people. To t-he student of architecture there is another and broader field of interest in the architecture of the city, both old and new, and while little of it stands analysis, it is full of historic interest ■ and suggestion, and Manila will raniî with Genoa and Pisa as a picturesque city. The city of Manila has withîm its officiai Mmits a population of some 300,000 people, composed, in point of numbers, about in the follo-wing order: Natives (forming the grand majority and mostly of the Tagalo tribes); Chinese, Spaniards, English, Continental Europeans and a few Japanese and East Indians. Of course, since the American occupation, the army distiirbs this proportion if counted as a part of the population, but this would be an im¬ proper arrangement. American civilians are as yet numerically insignificant. During the "fool's paradise," from August 13 to February 4, 1899, the tendency of this élément was to increase rapidly, but hostilities efEectually checked this . The city itself consists of the ancient walled city or Manila proper, and a number of districts which were originally suburbs and hâve been gradually absorbed by the growth of the city. These districts, mostly on the ncrth side of the Pasig River, are called the new city, and forra the main part of the town in area and population and business activity. On the south side of the river, besides the walled city, are Paco, Nozelada, Ermita and Malate, as well as the famous drive and parade ground, by th'e bay, called the Lunetta. The old city is practically a great fortresa eliiptieal in form 1 mile by % of a mile, with a compactiy built town inside its massive walls. The whole is surrounded by a moat and the city entered through seven gaytes with drawbridges and redans, and is a most excellent spécimen of médiéval military engineering on the prineiples of Vauban. This part of Manila, together with the districts of Binondo, Santa Cruz and Quiapo, in the "new city," forms the body of the city, and is closely built of "materiales fortis," i, e., strong material, which means anything from masonry 5 ft. thick to wooden sheds with corrugated iron roofs; alwaya excepting the native structures of bamboo and thatch, which form of construction' is the "hete noir" of the building department, health board, and insurance men-. In the more remote districts of San Miguel, Sampaloe, and M'alaganan, as well as in the southeirn suburbs, detached modem résidences of masonry and fraime predominate, and hère bamboo houses hâve been permitted when at a distance of 40 mètres from a regular structure and also on the back streets and lots. In organizing a building department under the American rég¬ ime, one of the first matters requiring attention was the estab¬ lishment of "fire-limits," and though but a few weeks had elapsed