Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-03-13
THE BENT oFTHE GoTHAMITEs
When They Do Anything They Do 1t
with a Rush-Freneh Flatsln IlIustra-
ton.

chair, lighted fresh cigar, and dropped
one foot negligently into the waste paper
basket, ~ am Western man myself,
but am on to the characteristics Of the
people OF this large town. / have been in
the real estate business in New York ana
Chicago continuously for 10 years, and
have watched the peculiarities of the pe0-
pie or the two cities with good deal Of
interest. / usually spend five days cut of
every month in Chicago and the rest of
the time here. A distinction between the
people OF the two cities is illustrated by
my two offices.
THE place at which do business at
Chicago is filled with files, blank books,
diagrams, plans OF lots, arch itects' draw
ing, specimens of tirs-prOOf brick, labor
ers' petitions, and a thousand and one
odds and ends pertaining more or less TO
houses and lots and carpenter shops. l
nave more clerks than L really need, and
they all wear their hats in the office,
smoke cigars, and write busily all the
time. ] haven't the least idea in the
world what they write about, out / know
they always present an appearance Of
great activity, they are ink-stained and
excited, and they all seem to know
more about the business than | do.
Chicago men look in, observe the bluff and
are duly impressed of course.
NOW, observe this Office, right on the
most fashionable part Of Fifth avenue.
French plate-glass windows, lnlaid floor,
boy ia buttons to open the door, $40 rugs
In front of the desks and the tireplaces,
expensive pictures, polished cher-
ry-wood furniture, aud so on.
Only two clerks in the place and
both OF them pale, respectful, neatly
dressed, and the quietest men l ever saw
in my life. They never smoke, are very
polite, write beautifully, and though they
seldom seem to work hard, those two men
accomplish more in two days than the
big crowd of hustlers in my Chicago
office do in week. They come at 10, and
by O'Clock the office Is closed.
"Doyou know why this state Of things
exists? Because, as / said at the outset,
New Workers are like a lot OF sheep. A
real estate broker here, who had good
deal of money, fitted up an office in the
style about ten years ago, so as to estab
lish his son in business. He was fin
Ical sort of chap, and everything about
his place was extremely elegant. Three
or four society ladies went TO his place to
see about engaging houses, were treated
as though they were duchesses, and in
week all New York had started in to fol-
low them. The other brokers soon noticed
the way things were going, and so the
rush for expensive Offices began. Com
petition has grown so great that there
seems to be practically no limit to the
extent to which elegance in real estate
Offices will be carried. The public begins
TO move in a certain direction, and it
PUSHES into extremes at terrific rate of
speed.
The men who are most successful in
business are the ones who cater to the
latest lad of NewlYorkers. Observe the
dry gOOda fOr fnotanQp Ono or w
society women show a sudden fOndness
for cloth dress tnat is-well, let US say
that is trimmed with astrakhan. Within
week some wlde-awake dry goods man
puts a thousand dollars worth of adver-
tisements in Sunday papers, announcing
his recent Importation OF astrakhan fitted
for trimming dresses. which is to be sold
at a ruinous low price TO make room tor
incoming stock. Perhaps the very same
day another firm announces the acqulsi-
ti0n of vast stock of cloth suitable for
ladies'dresses that are to be trimmed with
astrakhan, and within ten days cloth and
astrakhan dresses appear in ali dry goods
shop windows, and there is a hulabaloO
among all the dressmakers of the town.
For the next month everything is cloth
and astrakhan among the women of lei
sure, and then the BOwery firms come out
with blast of Jrumpets, and all the shop
York appear in imitation of astrakhan.
and l suppose. even of cloth sold at an
absurdly low figure. Then the astrakhan
and cloth is given up, and there is rush
in another direction.
tine shrewdest and most successful
real estate men are the ones who have
caught this spirit from the New York
merchants. Take the history of French
flats ia New York. There was never any
thing in the history OF the world to equal
IL. The doom of the French fat has come.
And people that are interested in real es.
tate and building now look back upon this
really wonderful craze and try to imagine
how it all came about. 1t is difficult to
account for. Very many of the monster
apartment houses, the construction of
which was begun four or five years ago,
now turn out to be the latest sort OF fah-
ures. Some OF them do not pay per cent
on the original investment, and one great
building, which was so imposing and
monsuous that it was illustrated in
several magazines and discussed by
political economists, does not pay an in
come Of one-halt OF l per cent. upon
an outlay o. three-quarters Of million
dollars.
"NOt only this, but many Of the msgni-
fcent apartments along Fifth and Madi-
son avenues, which formerly enjoyed all
it, stand half empty, and suites Of apart
ments which rented five years ago for 3d.
600. $4,000 and $4,000, now go begging for
tenants at $1,000 and 1900, reduction.
The causes for the decline OF the fiat fever
are easily found fone looks into the mat
ter carefully. Take single instance.
One OF my customers owned two houses
in Twenty-ninth street, near Ninth ave.
nue.. IL is not fashionable neighbOrhood
but IL Is a respectable one. Had these
houses been three blocks eastward they
would have brought IN the nice rental of
1000 or $4,000. Situated where they We're
it was impossible TO get more than twelve
hundred year out Of them, owing 10 IT.
responsible tenants and the hard usage
the houses received. The people who
lived in them rerented the floors to tene-
ment.house folks, who cooked in the up
per rooms. burned up the closet doors for
klndling wood, smashed the windows with
great frequency, and INDUCED in other
cheerful Vagaries OF this sort. When the
French hat fever struck the town the
land ord saw his way clear TO make
vast amount Of money by turning the two
buildings into one apartment house.
This was done at very heavy outlay;
twelve fats were equipped with ranges,
stationary tubs, ETC., and took hold OF
the house.
The Idea, Of course, was 10 get rid or
the cheap tenement house element, and
get respectable people in there instead.
The rent Of the apartments graduated