Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-25
MANHATTANISMS.
KEW YORK MORE CROWDED AND COSTLY
THAN EVER.
Luxuriously Stupid Landlords-Musica.
and Dramatic Items-o. Froth.
ingham's Purposes-Etc.
Correspondents OF the RECORD. UNION. !
New York, February II, lSS.

Correspondence Of the RECORD UNIoSl
New YORK, February IL, 1882.
The city has never been nearly so
thronged as it is this winter. 1t is actually
packed in every par, without sufficient
space for new corners #ho may want more
than elbow room. A great many of the
present residents are transient; they are
from all quarters OF the country, drawn
by pleasure or business. or both, to the
commercial center OF the Republic. Al
though the normal population of this
island 1.-THE municipal limits extend, as you
know, much beyond it,, is less than /, l00,-
900, it is estimated now to be close upon
l,50O, 600, owing mainly to the great influx
of strangers incidental to the season.
Every year more and more people come
from North, East, West and South to
spend
THE WINTER IN THE METROPOLIS,
Attractive from its climate, its variety, it's
wealth and its pleasures. And after pass.
ing several winters here they are SO discon-
tented to pass them elsewhere, that many
who can afford it decide to make New
York their home. Manhattan has a num-
Der OF serious defects, but they are hardly
perceptible to persons possessed of ample
means, who naturally think it delightful
capital. It is delightful to them it is
hard, grinding, dreary, comfortless to the
poor alone, especially to the very poor,
IL,
always will be, in larger and larger pro-
portion. The saying that this is a city of
paupers and millionsires, although an ex-
aggeration, like most cancellations,
steadily grows nearer to the truth for it
annually becomes more aud more difficult
for persons of moderate income to live
here. 1t has never been more difficult for
that very numerous class than at present.
Everything is dear-deare1 than ever be-
fore-and salaries and ordinary means of
earning have not materially advanced.
Not only luxuries, but common necessities,
are very high, household expenses rating
from 20 to 80 per cent. above those of two
or three years ago, for the same kind of
living.
RENTS ARE EXoRBTTANT,
The supply of houses and apartments be-
ing, despite the active building all over
town, wholly inadequate to the demand.
Hundreds of families, unable to secure
dwellings last autumn, were obliged to
board consequently every hotel and
boarding house of respectable, or even
decent sort, is full to OVERLOOKING. When
any desirable residence chances to be va
cant, it can be Immediately let at ma
terial advance on last years figures.
You remember, when the elevated rail-
ways had been finished, and SO many small
apartment houses put up, that it was
thought New York would be relieved of its
pressure of population, and that the tens
of thousands who had been driven to the
suburbs Of New Jersey, Long Island, West
chester, Rockland and Orange, would feel
financially able to return 80 the city. But
the anticipated lowering of rents did not
occur, and has not occurred. They have,
on the contrary, gone up, and threaten to
go much higher. Other things keep pace
with rents and men who cannot command
more than 81 500 to So, 600 year cannot
affords to make their homes on
THIS COSTLY ISLAND.
A man with wife and enc or two chill
dren, or even without children, needs
$1,000 a year to support himself here in
aught like comfort. And when he demands
elegance or luxury in surroundings there is
no limit to his requirements. Many New
Workers. spend on a single entertainment
more than would be sufficient to keep an
ordinary familyifor five or six years. This
seems very much like millionaires and
paupers, does it not Hard as the winter
has borne upon people of fixed incomes,
and dependent upon salaries, it has been
remarkably gay with the rich, whose habits
become more and more luxurious. Since
December lst, dinners, receptions, parties
aud balls have abounded In the fashionable
quarters, and they have been most lavishly
furnished. Not few seem to have been
given to show contempt for money, and
by such ostentatious contempt have proved
an er-appreciation of it. Some of the balls
at Delmonico's and the Brunswick have in
their entirety cost $40, 900 each, and others
on an extravagant scale are in preparation.
There have never been so many Germans
as this season, and never such reckless
profusion of flowers, owing doubtless to
the fact that flowers are four or five
times dearer than In any previous season.
An ordinary bouquet will bring 81 or So,
which is not strange, when it is known
that rosebuds now sell here at fifty cents
apiece. Everyb body has learned that any
kind of display is attended with large eX.
pense and penurious persons understand,
therefore, that an entertainment of an
elaborate order will advertise their prodi-
gality without any need on their part of de-
scending to particulars. Verify is New
York good place for the rich, but
A BAD PLACE FOR THE POOR.
Since the burning of the Potter building.
formerly known as the World building
there has been active discussion by the
press and public about the safety Of build
ings in case OF fire. Interest in the sub
iect will soon cease nor will it be revived
until there has been another loss of life
from the same cause. In all great cities,
notably here, people forget calamities or
disasters of any and every sort in a few
days; they have too much to think of, too
much to do, to carry them in mind. They
are reckless, well. nigh Indifferent to posi-
bilities or even to probabilities. They are
willing to take their chances. This was
clearly demonstrated in the Potter build
ing. Everyone of its occupants knew what
death-trap it was, should it once get
ablaze and yet nobody objected to stay
ing in it. There are hundreds of stores and
dwellings here known to be unsafe-not
few of them have been officially pro-
nounced unsafe-but they continue to be
occupied by persons fully conscious of the
fact. A prominent hotel on the East side
was condemned months ago by the Com
missioners on Buildings, though it has not
suffered any apparent diminution of patron
age. New-Yorkers may be alarmed for the
nonce by likelihood of disaster but the
fear is soon dispelled in the hurry and rush
of affairs. The subject reminds me of the
stubbornness and
STUPIDITY OF CERTAIN LANDLORDS,
Who prefer their property should stand
idle to letting it on terms lower than they
have named. When the New York Belt
ING Comuanv had been burned out by the