Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 64, no. 1651: November 4, 1899

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Kovember 4, 1899. RECORD AND GUIDE. 6^3 ESTABLISHED-^ a^ARpHai^'*^ 1868, DEVÎiIeD to ReA.1. EsTAFE , SUlLDI^''o *;R.cKitecîJ[^E ,t(otJSEMOLIi DEGORATlorf. BJsii^EssAitDThèmes 0FGE|iEi\ftl ir/TEHESi, PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE2iSIX DOLLARS. PuMis/wd every Saturday. Tblbphokb, Ooetlanet 1370. Qom mu3 ica tlon s should be a,dilre«s«d t4 ! G. W. SWSBIT, 14-16 Vee«r StrMt. I. 1. LINDHBY, Bmimsn Alanager. "Entered al lhe Post-Opioe at Ntio York, S- Y., assec«nd-class matter." Vol. LXIV. NOVEMBER 4, 1S99. No, 1051 THE si3eculative spiiit to which we alltided last weeK has had full play in the stock market this, and mystery has been found to possess its old-time charm iu bringing in huy- ers. The market is really being scraped Eor suitable objects for manipulatian, and it becomes a question what the spéculative élément wtU do when they hâve put up all the old discredited issues on the stock list. May-be they will then tackle bonds, among which there are quite a number of income and debenture issues, whieh deserve their considération quite as much. as the low priced Industrials that liave been the features of the week, some of them more so, In- dred there are signs that opérations bave been begun in this direction already, and that in a short time everything good, bad and indiffèrent will hâve been advanced to a new plane of value, That accomplished there must come a reaction, or a new move¬ ment to make another record of values beginning as before witli sound Issues and working through the list agaln. Which of these WiU be attempted will dépend upon a good many things, the re¬ sults of the electionnext Tuesday, the condition of gênerai busi¬ ness and the amount of capital available for spectilative uses. Talk of another advance upon the top of those already seeu may sound like nonsense, but values as they stand to-day are to no small estent nonsense, and why not a little more of it. It has always been the habit of the public in good times to put invest¬ ment values on securities based upon the temporary prosperity of the properties on which they are predicted; and, being the habit, it is as likely as ever to be followed now. This, in view of the large manufacturing that is now going on, opens up a pros¬ pect for considérable advance yet, especially în the Industrial issues. The natural reckoning will come later, but it is too far ahead for the sight of the rank and file of the spéculative world, The masses buy at inflated values, because they know nothing of probabilities and averages, and the knowing gamble on their shortsightedness and weakness. Of course it is ridiculous to ask the world to be prudent, if tbey were there would be few panics, wars or disasters of any kind; but if prudence were the card by which people acted, présent values would, in most cases, suffice for a year to come, and in some cases for a good many yeara to come, W'all Street gets its activity from the belief fixed in many minds that others will pull their chestnuts from the fire; but thei'e is satisfaction in knowing that it is not always the eat that 'gets burnt. SO far we hâve only half a storyof the war in South Afriea, We hear of the British lossee and reverses, but we know absolutely nothing of their cost to the Boers, beyond vague state¬ ments. Whîle the Boers are undoubtedly gaining, it is apparent tbat their trium'phant march to the sea has been checked and every day's delay makes the situation more serious for them. ït tliey ean be held at bay for a few weeks longer the object of their enemies wlll be gained. The success of the latter dépends uot on the troops in the field, but on those on the way, and from now on their forces will gain daily in strength and eventually the ^cers will bave to reckon wiih a counter movement against the Transvaal itself, These opérations will be more protracted, however, than has been supposed, for we note from one of our London exchanges, franktr than the others, that Gen. BuUer's fuli command cannot be in the field before Christmas, and that the War Office sets the second week in January as the eariiest time that he can begin aggressive opérations in Natal, The im¬ portant question is whether, meantime, the Boers ean by their fiuccess in the field, induce the Dutch, of the South African colonies, to share their fortunes as well as sympathetically sup¬ port their cause. A few more trlumphs like those of this week would détermine this question afflrm'atively. On the other side, their conduct shows that the British bave lost none of their con¬ fidence in the final resuit, and in the interval are prepared for almost any sacrifice, The markets reflect the mlsfortunes of the battlefield, because the professional operator, even with the tear Cf the patrict in his eye, will buy or sell according to the nature of the latest rumor, but any loss seen in prices would be as eas¬ ily accounted for by the tightness. of money, as by the bad news from the seat of war. There is no prospect for ease in money in tbe European markets; ou the contrary, only an entire change in the situation could produce that, and such a change is most highiy improbable. This fact has forced down the prices of In¬ dustrials in Berlin, though the décline is stubbornly resîsted and the quotations, according to last advices, are still higher than they were a year ago. It is reported that at the coming meeting of the French Parliament there will be a contest over the Franco-American Treaty of Commerce, the opposition coming from the proteedonists. As an indication of the changing con¬ ditions of foreign trade, the fact appears that, while the tonnage of British shipping in the Suez Canal continues to Increase the relative share in the total tonnage of the canal déclines, Â re¬ turn for the first half of each year from 1891 to 1899 shows this relative proportion to bave fallen from 80.5% to 67.4%, concur¬ rently the German tonnage rose from 6.3%tD 10.1%, the French from 4% to 5.7% and the Dutch from 2.15% to 4%. While the Japa¬ nese flag, which previously did not flgure in the return, is now represented by 2.3%, that of the United States does not appear in the comparison. Architecture In New York A LONDO.N AROHITECT O.N A VISIT TO THIS CITY. ATa moment when New York City is the subject of no end ■*■-*■ of detraction, only in part justified from its own midst it is decideaiy cheering to come across remarks of a stranger who has had a good word to say for its présent and is very flattering regarding its future, in looking over recently a London exchange, the well-known ■'Builder," au old-established jom-nal that, in whatever it treats architecturally at least, speaks by the card. It appears that the editor of this journal, or someone whose views he thought worthy of receiving his officiai approval, has recently been in New York making "notes," whieh appear in due course in the columns of his paper. There are those in the city who would perhaps hâve preferred that this visitor, according to our impetuous custom, should hâve been met at quarantiue and had his views extracted from him by the rude corkscrew practices of the newspaper interviewer, before they had become prejudieed in any way by actual observation. Whoever he was, he managed to come in unobserved, to see his sights and go home to tell his countrymen about them in an intelligent way in an article which he modestly calls "Notes on New York." The writer of these notes does not praise the city indiscrimi- nately, nor does he escape tne stranger's inévitable fate of failing into errors. Some of these are amusing, as for instance that our overhead raiiroads, by their noise, make hundreds of hotel rooms uninhabitable. Of course he means by Englishmen, for whoever heard of an American objectlng to noise. He seems to think, too, that New Yorkers ride in street cars because of the poverty of thé cab System, whereas if he had inquired a little further he would hâve found that excellence of cheap transportation among a peo¬ ple of démocratie instincts makes expensive forms ol urban travel scarce. These are small matters, easily overlooked, especially when they are accompanied by an évident désire to do justice to the eity and its buildings. New York, he thinks, may probably be considered the most remarkable city in the world; its dwell¬ ing houses—models of comfort and quiet, and its hôtels—palaces, The libéral expenditure of money for buildings, of what he ealls a non-utilitarian character, such as libraries, has also his ad¬ miration. The high buildings come in for a good deal of attention, as do also the artistic tendencies of this people. On these points it is perhaps best to quote the writer himself, even though some of his views, given in the following extract, may appear to be startling, considering the architectural criticism' to which New York has been accustomed to receive from native writers: They are out ot proportion to the width oE the Btreet, but tliey are at once a bold and a successful endeavor to soive the difficulty of epace. Tliere is uo European community wiiich would, to use a popu¬ lar expression, hâve taken the buli by the horns ln tliis way. New Vork, confiT ed on Manhattan Island, pressed ln by the Hudson and the Ei^st rivers, has many times muitiplied its area by the simple ex¬ pédient of going upwards instead of outwards. It la obvious that, wlietlier we like it or not, tbe cities of the Oîd World—more espe¬ cially those of Eneland^wiii bave, in perhaps a somewhat modlfled form, to make use of this kind of building, though the wholesale way iu which it is being carried out ln l>Iew York would never hâve beeQ possible ln an Old World city, It i-s a building policy whlch is not