Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-05
PICKED UP QUIETLY.
A Local Bank President Believed to
be at the Bottom Of the
BIG GOBBLE ON SECOND AVENUE.
Deals Made in the Belief That Side Street
Realty Will Advance.
INVENTORS BEST FRIENDS OF WOMEN

Another important transaction in real es-
tate was consummated yesterday. w. A.
Heron & Sons sold No. 139 Water street,
opposite the new Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road depot, consisting of a three-story brick
building, formerly known as the William
Penn Hotel, with lot 3Ox16O feet through
to First avenue, for $4,000. The purchaser,
well-known capitalist, desired his name
withheld for the present. He bought as an
investment and will improve the property.
The sale of Second avenue property at sS72
foot front, as noted in THE DISPATCH yester-
day, gave rise to considerable comment on
Fourth avenue. prominent real estate broker
remarked Although the property was
knocked down to ]. E. McKelvy, Esq, 1 think
Mr.. E. NJ. Ferguson, President OF the Nj. d NJ.
National Bank, is the real purchaser. 1t is
known that he has quietly picked up several
pieces on Third avenue, between the Central
and st. Charles Hotels, and now he seems to
have turned his attention to Second avenue.
He owns the property on Third avenue abut-
ting the lot bought yesterday, and if he was
the buyer, as think he was, he now has good
frontage on both streets"
what does he propose to do with itT'
Il am not advised, but think his object is
speculation as it is the opinion of many that,
owing to the scarcity of business sites on the
main thoroughfares, values on the side streets
will enhance"
The occupant of the property. a woman, was
the next best bidder to Mr.. McKelvy, and, it is
said, she was prepared to pay more for it than
it brought, but the auctioneer was too quick
for her.
One of the most beneficent results of modern
invention is the fact that it has opened up new
avocations for women, and gwen opportunity
for the development Of talent that has hitherto
been confined to very narrow grooves. Fifty
years ago when a woman was unfortunate
enough to be obliged to fight the battle of life
alone, about the only thing she could do was to
eke out a miserable existence by teaching
school being tyrannized over the while by the
school committee" and subjected to the mex
pressible humiliation of boarding around"
But modern inventions have widened her field
and rendered it possible for her to be independ-
ent-to not only make living but to con mand
such salary as will cause her to really take an
interest in her work. ard not regard it merely
as a make-shitt until some fellow comes along
who will be good enough to marry her. g.
Telephones and typewriters, by the use Of
which about 500 women in Pittsburg are sup
porting themselves in comfort, have done more
to broaden the sphere of the weaker half of
creation and enable them to be self-supporting
than all the laws IN the statute books for that
purpose. The inventor has so far proved the
best friend Of woman.
The melancholy man is always ready to pre-
dict disaster and failure. He says that while
the corn crop last season was enormous, the
prices are so low that in some sections it can
only be used for fuel. He says that the Irish
potato crop was immense, two crops having
been produced during the season in some sec
tions, but that the price is so low that barrel
Of potatoes will scarcely pay for the barrel,
and that many farmers are letting their
potatoes remain in the ground He says
says that there is more iron
on the market than can be sold in two years,
and more houses building than can find occu-
pants; that real estate is too high and that
there will be disastrous reaction In short
everything to him is intensely blue" and there
is not ray of sunshine to light his path.
If all men were like him the cars would rust
on the track, ships lie listless in port and com
merce sink into state of chronic stagns tion.
1t must be admitted, however. that such men
are necessary and fill their proper places they
often check wild ventures and act as sort of
regulator to the more sanguine, and since it is
always safe to prophesy failure, they generally
have regulations as truth tellers,
When business becomes slack, and when it
becomes necessary to economic in the matter
of salaries, the first question that employers
ask themselves is: "Who can best be spared?''
The barnacles, the shirks the makeshifts,
somebody's proteges, somebody's nephews, and
especially somebody's good-for-nothing Young
men, please remember that these are not the
ones who are called for when responsible posi-
tions are to be filled. Would you like to know
the probabilities of your getting such posi-
ton! Inquire within! What are you doing to
make yourself valuable in the position you now
occupy?
If you are dong with your might what your
hands find TO do, the chances are ten to one
that you soon become valuable in that posi-
ton that you cannot be spared from it; and
then, singular to relate, will be the very time
when you will be sought out for promotion for
a better place.