The Portland daily press., 1896-05-02
REAL ESTATE ON THE BoWERY.
How 1t Has Been Depressed in Value by
Popular Songs.


cations of the New York Sun, is largely
due to the effect of certain popular songs.
1t says: While these two parcels of prop
erty brought less than $2C0 900, they
could not have been bought six years
ago for half million dollars. The
at that time for $135, 600, such an offer
having been made and refused. For the
Grand street corner $500, 900 had been re-
fused. but this was before Harry Conor
sang the song entitled ''The Bowery' at
the Madison Square theater in "a Trip
to Chinatown. The words of the song
were written by Charles III. Hoyt and
Percy Gaunt composed the music 40
oording to many property owners along
the Bowery the song had great deal
to do with causing drop in the value
of Bowery real estate. These property
owners argue that even the first stanza
of the song was enough to kill business
on the old thoroughfare, and that 1t had
serious effect upon the retail clothing
business. Here is the language used in
the first stanzas
Oh the night that I struck New York,
| went out for quiet walk;
Folks who are ION to'' the city say,
Better, by lar, that took Broadway;
But was out to enjoy the sights;
There was the Bowery ablaZe with lights
l had one of the DEVILS own nights
I'll never go there any more.
others is now no business man on the
Bowery who is making the amount of
money he made a few years ago." said
one of the clothing dealers. SIN fact
the majority of them are only earning
their expenses. The res ult of this is
that many are moving away and stores
remain vacant SO long that tho property
owners are glad to get tenants at low
rents. This being the case. other proper
ty owners are compelled to lower the
rents of their tenants, except, of course,
in certain instances where long leases
exist. But long leases in the Bowery are
things OF the past. Nowadays, when
five-ysars' lease expires the tenant re-
fuses to renew it, and will only rent q
store for year. 1 remember the time
when it was out Of the question to rent a
store anywhere on the Bowery unless the
tenant was willing to pay extraordinary
premiums in buying lease. / blame it
all on the song. Take that chorus, for
instance:
The Bowery, the Bowery;
They say such things, and they do such
things
On the Bowery, the Bowery-
I'l1 never go there any more.
"The words of that chorus have
travelled all over the world, and strang-
ers coming to New York are afraid to
carry dollar with them when they walk
the Bowery nowadays. These strangers
simply stroll along and look for the
strange things said and done on the
Bowery, but they have no money with
them to patronize the Bowery trades
men. Take the dealers in gents fur
nisAing goods. There was time when
they all made fortunes selling neckwear
and underwear to the grocery clerks,
bartenders, and railroad men of Jersey
City and Brooklyn. They sold good ar
ticles at low prices and made small
profits, but had plenty of sales. They
were satisfied, and SO were the customers.
But that third verse of the song killed
off their business:
[ went into an auction store
/ never saw any thieves before;
First he sold me a pair of socks,
Then said he, Chow much for the box?n
Some one said "Two dollars - I said
f.Thraop'
He emptied the box and gave it to me-
:" sold you the box, not the socks" said
he
I'll never go there any more.
"Those words may have sounded funny
to theatre-goers, but they are not funny
to the ears of the gents furnishing
goods tradesmen on the Bowsry. Nova
days even the italian laborer from Null
berry street guys the storekeeper when
buying socks. Next door here I was in
my neighbours store on Monday night
when one of these Italians came in. He
wanted to buy socks. The storekeeper
offered to sell him two pairs for 20 cen ts
The Italian grinned and said:
You sella de box or de sooks?
''This is sample of the insults hur led
at the Bowery furnishing goods dealers,
who are actually boyootted on account
of the third verse of the song. The fourth
verse tells of the concert halls. They
were all driven out, but the song was
not responsible for this. The reform ad-
ministration drove. the concert halls away
from the Bowery. But the fifth verse
ruined the old fashioned German BARRIERS,
who had gone to the expense of patting
in baths. These baths were patronized by
the poor people on the east side, and
after the song came out 1t got 60 be a
common thing for one man to quiz
another by saying:
&C rs that Bowery sroape?' and then
singing 'I'll never go there any more
Now there are none but Italians running
barber shops on the Bowery. Here is
the part of the song that killed the trade
of the Bowery's German BARRIERS:
1 went into barber-shop;
He talked till I thought he would never
stop;
| said cut it short, he misunderstood,
Clipped down my hair just as close as he