Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 60, no. 1533: July 31, 1897

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July 31, 1897. Record and Guîde 161 nnri'îHPn'WÍMiDnH 514^1 flfiR. ESTABUSHED ^ íJytBpH Sm^ 186 8. DEVfl-tED p FÍE\LESTAJE,BuiLDIf/G Ap.cKlTEeTURE,KciUSEĨÍOlDDEGOí(AnOIí, BUStl^ESS AĨÍD THEIflES OF Gĩ|ÍER^l !í/TCR.ESl. PAICE, PER r£AR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Publisheã every Saturduy. TBLaPHONB,......COKTr,ANt>T 1370. Communlcatlona should be addressed to C. W. SWEEÎT, 14-16 Veaey Street. J. T, LINDSEY, Busineaa Manager. "Entered at the Fosl-Offlee at Ncw Tork, N. Y., us secondrclass nialler." VOL. LX. JULY 31, 1897. No. 1,533 ARE YOU mERESTED iN REAL ESTATE. ĩf so, you oug^ht to have a eopy of the real estate man's Web- ster—Van Siclen's "Guide to Buyers and Sellers oC Real Es- tate." It answers every question you can ask. Send for ĩt. ĩn ûloth, $1.00; in paper, 75 cents. Record and G-uide Offlce, 14-10 Vesey streeí. SECRKTARY GAGE is tlie mau iii the Ciibhnít to wliom the business world iooks for protection ancl help. Con'icvuĸnit- !y, when he speaks on the commercial situtition witli the í-onfl- dence that the words used by him at Boston imply, everyoue is encouraged. Though himself unquestionably sound on thc cur- rency question and a membei' of aa administration wliolly so, Mr. Gage could not disguise from his hearers aud the publir. while making the best of recent eft'orts to secure considenitioLi for this all-important question, aud pvobably iutendins to warn them of the fact, that all is not plain sailiiig with Congress. It is eertaÍQ that a measure reforming the curreucy could not have passed the session of Congress that has j'ust adjourued, even if it had not had aiiother important measure to eonsidei', and there no reason for supposing that when it meets iii Deeember the chanees of success will be any grenter. It is ouĩy in periods of great eommercial depression, accompanied as they always are by plentiful doubt and suspicion, tbat our curreu'Cy can fail to worlĩ sraoothly, and there îs, therefore, no cause for anxiety, seeing that we are steadily progressing toward better tiraes. But it is important that we should not forget that bad times will inevitably come again, aud that we ought not to neglect to remedy eonditions that we know for a certainty will greatly aggravate the badness of such times when they do come. The agitation for a reform of the currency must be kept up until its object is aehieved. The buying moveinent on the Stock Market keeps up and broadens. the advanc-es beiug in tlie lowei' priced securities that have not previously sufficiently beneâted by the chauge in the times, and in some eases, tlie chauges for the bettei' in the properties upoii which they are íssued. It is a market affording opportunities for renlixing proflts not seen for many a long day. EUROPE is eujoyiug a qniet if not dull interval, whieli will only be broken by the close of the vacations, or by some event or occui'rence not now in sight. Business is fairlygood,and money coutiuues to be cheap. iu fact for the moment it is diffi- cult to maiutain eveu the moderate r.ntes prevaĩling. Some of the light-headed newspapers are doing their best to create sensa- tiojis, but are failiug miserably. The cool, heavy persîstenee of" the Powers in their determinatiou to crush out the warlike am- bjtions of the small fry of Southenstern Europe, flrst by their action against Greece in Crete and later by the insistence upon the abandonment of Thessaly by Turkey, diseourages the idea of war, and one cannot be consisteutly nuiintaiued even iu tht; pages of a newspaper in the face of siich eoutrary evidence. This is hard on the newspapers, bnt eannot be helped, aud they have to cheer them only the remotest kind of a prospect of the correspondeuce between Japan aud the Uuited States becomíug heated, and the political or religious troubles in India. The uews of the last is received with ill-eoncealed satisfaction by the foreigu press, inimical to Brltain; but these need not imagine that the occurreuces of 1S5S-9 are possibĩe again. The develop- ment of the Indian raih'oad system alone makes that impossible, while such discontent as now exists seej^s to be contined to the Mohammedan population aud not to be gL"eral as it was in the mutiny. Moreover, due warning has been gi>en, and doubtless all neeessary preparations to quickly erush an .?utbreak have been made. The surrender of the Sultan in the mav'^er of Thes- saly, coming as suddenly as it did. raises the thought that com- pensatiou was offered in atîother direction, or that the TurK con- eeives that he can take eompeusation elsewhere. Is it possible that Crete is to be turned over to him ? If so, we may look for trouble there, aud a protest of gigantic proportîons from the publi<'. es[icriiilly rroiu thc lii-ilisb aud Aiuerican people. _----------^------------ IK we conlinue we may, after aĩl, make New York a deeentand comfortable cíty to llve in. The recently evinced publie sensitivpuesĸ regnrding uuneeessaiy uoise is a manîfestation of niceness. M'hich, a few years ago, would have been seouted, and a itolice captaiu, like Cross, who should have insisted, to the point oí m;iking an arrest, that truckmen are uot licensed to iucotumode ptnlestriaus at pleasure would have been looked upon as au uncommercial disturber of the traffic. It is of this sort of triíles that the comfort of a great city ĩs in great meas- ure made. They count for as much as parks and boulevards iu reudering eity cxistence nttractive. In the past, perhaps tho uiost notablc circurastauce of New York life has been its tol- eration, or, ratlier, iudift-erencfi to, uuisauces. No thought at all lias been giveu to the mitigatiou of petty anuoyances, so that Ihere has ariseu a multitude of qnite unnecessary torments which nre maiuly the result of niere brutal iudiffereiice ou the pnrt of sonic in'rsons to thc righls iind comforts of others. The iiervoiis disea.ses iucidentul lo city life are due almost entirely lo these ifritntious. Now tlint a reíormatiou has been started it .sliould not ouly be contiuued, but the application of it in- creased in vigor. Only a begiuuing has been made. —-------^------------- IK another columu will be foimd furtber'eorrespondeuce re- gnrdiug taxation ou real Estate. The statistics which the secrelary uf the New York Tax líeform Assoeiation gives us are iuterestiug, and, uuquestionably, they aftord additioual evi- deuce in favor of the abolitiou of persoual taxes. Ou the other liand, they make it jjlaiu how í'ew of our citizens are acquainted !it all witli the tax-gatherer. The luass of people, iudeed, have no direct reíaliou with the governmeut as taxpayers, and it is quite uatural. tlierefore, that they should have ouly an îndis- tinct eouseiousness. that publie affairs are admiuistered at their personal cost. We believe that our system of indirect taxation is in síuiie nieiisure responsible for the marked niid the increas- ing iiroueuess of our people to look upon governmeut as a sort of uatioiiiil niiigician enpablc of making whatever is wanted by other meaus thaii by ĩhe labor and intelligence of the mill- ions. They have no idea that governmeut is an ageney for dis- Iributing aud uot for creating wealth, and tbat, cousequeutly, all demiinds upou goverument are demauds upou the poekets of ín- dividuals. The regular periodical visits of the tax-gatherer are very potent to dispel these illusions and to proniote a public si'use of economy. --------—♦------------ THE FORECLOSURE RECORD. Below wiU be found a table showing the elassiflcation aud dis- position of the New York City property announced for sale in foreclosure in the first half of this year, eompared with the sarne for the corresponding six months of 1896. The flgures fully explain themselves, or the facts they represent have been stated so recently in these columns that it is not necessary 'ío draw attention to them again nO'W. It may be of interest to su'pplemen-t the fig'ures g^iven by stating that SOtí suits in foreclosure were be-gun from January 2 to June 30, lSt)7, while only 624 such stĩits were bcgun in the same time last year: PROPERTY OFFERED IN FORECLOSURE FROM JAN :; TO .lUNB 2(3, 1S97, and COiWPARED WITH SAME OFFGRE-D FROM JAN 4 TO JUNE 27, ISÛIi. I-------■-----^Bought-----------—I l~Bypia.intiffs.—I ,—By others—, With- Amountdue. No. Amount. No. Amount. drawn. Flats and teuements: 1S96...... liji) .í;2,990,516 89 .$1,915,527 ũô .Sl.lle.StíO ■>ã 1S97...... 297 0.216,42.5 13T 2,281,231 110 2,398,0:59 50 Dwellings. Ĩ896...... 147 1,498,800 5T 769,i50 41 701211 4'l 1897...... 203 2,397,921 98 1.264,013 57 797.(ISIî 48 Lots and plots. 180H...... 90 821,293 43 469.735 22 16tî .5li2 ''Ô 1897...... 152 1,820,21!) 110 1,262.319 27 ;i87 4.'ĩr, i.^ Bnsiness properties. 1896...... 41 933,28:1 12 234,902 15 451919 14 1S97...... 57 7,256,691 21 721,066 24 5.616 6i;i 1"' Totai. all. 1896...... 447 6,243,894 201 .5.389,614 H3 2,4:í6 552 li;5 1897...... 709 16,691,264 :î66 5,528,609 218 9,199.173 l:;ã .—.-------_4----------------- THE BUILDiNG ÍNDUSTRY. The report o£ the Department of Buildings for the quarter enû- ing June -50, 1897, states that there were at that date 1,927 new building's and 407 alterations in progTess. By referenee to the corresponding report of 1896, it will be found that the first half oĩ that year closed with 2,082 'buildings and (iél alterations un- der way. With the aid of prevlous reports the two tables given below liave 'been compiled. The flrst shows the number of build- ings, with their estimated costs, for which pians have been íĩled from January to July, as olassified by the Department. and the second the locations of the buildings comnaenced and completed in the same interval of time. In each case flgures for the corre- sponding period of last year are given to enable comparisons to lio made, and alj [h§ iĩgures used come írora departineat.a.1 reports,