The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-07-17
TEE PACIFIC
Advertiser.
,v York Correspondence.-No. 1s.
fvuox our OWN coRREsPoSpESr.

fTxox Our OWN CORRESPONDENT.
,nr Dor, IN The Metropolis-R Rents - What
Ja,es,s c5st in Nsr York-Bad Nsiqhbors-l
S1,,I,us R.Stelt-An Operation. in .. Re1t Es- |
',ss s--fn A1ait5ie Sei9hbor-The - Sicotson T"
'areaea NJ, ,aeo
hy-iay has opened upon the Gothamites this
not as bright and poetic morning. but a.
W one md gloomy, the thermometer down
,Oo Fab, whittier it has sullcnly retreated
m ardent sally of week or two among the |
mites. In the sonorous pleonasm OF Addison;
.The dawn Is overcast the morning lowers
And heaviIy In clouds brings on the day.,
which the wretched business Of nroring be
mes the main occupation of the great city OF
,v York. Mercantile business is largely sus- |
pied, and every activity Of city life is crippled
this fatal day; huge vans of furniture file
oueh the streets, and their contents, rudely |
tied into rough vehicles, are as rudely hustled
again ut their destination The cartmen
kings to-day, and have absolute license to
rye from twenty to thirty dollars load, to
mage furniture to at least an equal extent in
brndling, and to put on the airs of despots-
IN they be expected to employ care in the cart
of furniture, when time is such lot of money
on May-day? Probably a million dollars
>uld not cover the damage that they are doing
day to the mirrors and ottomans, lounges,
airs, curtnins, pianos, vases, clocks, pictures,
bd the infinite entanglement of I" traps" that
axe up the ownings of the restless housekeerer,
more properly house-deserter, of this fussy |
eehive of q city. 's Traps" indeed they are
aps 10 catch men withal- The man is involved
all this complicated apparatus of living, much
an animal is taken by snare laid for his
cath. a. often hear" said poor Thoreau, of
lessed memory, - that n man has got n house ard
home: but what If it should appear, instead.
hat the house and the home have got him ~
ould the readers Of the Commercial see the |
eary procession OF citizens and OF chattes that /
lie through the mouotonous straight streets of
few York on this CHASTITY day, driven upon their |
nnual pilgrimage by the American demon Of un- |
est, they would sec that the house-owner, quite |
often the house, is possessed. It is as If /
vii spirits had entered into the city
| The PEASANTS Of Westmorsland aud Cumber- |
and hear the first " wandering voice ~ of the !
kuckoo the 90 merle and the mavis " begin to
5iny among the Trosachs, and shepherds bring in
Soung lambs from the field TO shelter them from
khe lingering chills Of the night. It would seem
~ IL no one could have chosen this day for "
Jag day." even though in this harsh climate the
tpring makes but timid advances thus far, and
khe May pole would be an absurdity here and
bt is u relief to find that the origin Of our crazy
custom is referable to the remote days OF the
Dutch Colony, when, according TO Washington
Irving, NIL the burghers Of the iourishing town
Of Manhattan (or a. New Amsterdam" as this
city was called by them before it received from
the English its present name Of New York.
turned out in procession do honor to the valiant
Peter Stuyvesant. This doughty Governor, if my
street OF the city into another the first Of May
and his descendants have done so ever since
The custom rs il exists is q bitter satire on the
supposed shrewdness and % practical'' talent Of
the New Workers. It crowds into q single day
what should be done in not less than q hundred
it gives landlords the opportunity to combine
against the tenants, wagoners the occasion to
fleece them in every house it sets the outgoing
and the incoming stream Of /" trnps" and Of the
entrapped in collision upon the same staircase
and it is. on the whole, about as rude, wasteful,
and intolerable a custom as has ever been devised
in this rude and wasteful city,
Rents, which have steadily increased in rate
during each Of the past seven years, seem at last
to have reached the highest point. I note. in
deed, slight depreciation this first of May as COM
pared with last years prices. A good dwelling
house Of four stories, furnished, can now be
rented for from $4,000 to 81 900 per annum,
according to locatior. Such house will have
frontage Of from fifteen to nineteen feet, and will
cover half the depth of the hundred feet lot on
you cannot often hire house for less than six or
eight thousand dollars year; and some Of the
finer mansions rent tor 1000. Rents are gen.
erally about nine per cent Of the price of the
house. The most expensive buildings, however,
generally occupied by their owners; they
cost, fox lot and building, from SlO0, 900 up-
wards. One OF the finest houses On Fifth avenue
is owned by Madame Restell, the abortionist.
IL cost S20O,000. It is made doubly couspicu-
GUS by the fact that the rest of the block IL
empty. No one will build house adjacent to
hers, which maintains a distinguished isolation.
to the great pecuniary detIiment Of the owners OF
the adjacent property. There is no remedy from
grievances OF this nature in New York. A house
OF i'll fame will sometimes be established in
quite unobjectionabIe neighborhood, and all the
to the amount Of ten per cent or more. Owners
IN the vicinity either endeavor To buy of the in
truders, or pocket their losses and wait PATIENTLY
Tor the next May day, in hopes Of their removal.
In Broadway the most enormous rents are raid
TOR business purposes. Brooks L Brothers. th.
taiiors, move to-day from their building, ut the
corner OF Grand street, to another shop, and re-
eeive 100000 per year from the incoming par
ties Even larger rents than this are paid by
other firms.
In spite OF the immeuse value OF the ground in
New York, n surprising rccklessness is sometimes
shown in measuring and in building upon it.
IL ~ not uncommon for the purchaser to boldly
overstep the limits OF his land, and to make his
building project upon that Of his ncighbor, trust
ing that tbs eneroaeinent will escape notce until
ne gets fhoee "a nine points Of the law ~ npon his