Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-02-24
GREAT LANDLORDS.
AsToR PROPERTY IN NEW YoRa
 WORTH NEARLY s2oo, 100000.

Must Face the Music-Not Very Pro
 Eressiye and Wait For Others to Lead.
 We are all inclined to regard the great American landlord with disfavor. tte is associated in our minds with the Idea of high rents, demanded the instant they are due, with unfulfilled promises as to repairs and little improvements that would add so much to our comfort and with many other small annoyances that make him the man terrible, the man unfaithful, tho man hostile.
 Through the obscurity of these preju- dfces it is doubtful if many of us seq him clearly or judge him fairly. Ao- cording as we are near moving day or not and as we secure repairs we are apt to regard him as Q very disagreeabIe person, indeed, with few of the higher human attributes or else the reverse, and in tho meantime VIC pay rent and tolerate him because he continues to ex- ist and tho law protects him.
 Perhaps the best example of the American landlord is Astor, or rather the Astors. The interests cf this famous New York family are 50 numerous and so extensive, go widely distributed and SO varied in character, that as landlords they hold sway over all classes of so. oiety, occupying every kind of strue- ture. Then, too, the Astors are typical i1 that no sentiment enters into the man. Rgement of their properties, and, after all, this is true of the management of most real estate in this city.
 AS landlords the AsUors demand the market rate for rents, and they demand 1t the first of every month or quarter, as the case may be. Sooner than make material concessions in the amount to be paid on lease the Astors will allow q house to remain vacant, not one sea- son or year only, but two three or more years, and If then 8 good tenant is not at hand the building will be al- tered, provided the condition of the neighborhood requires it. It is appar- ent, therefore, that the Astors get the figures they ask. These are not the high. cat paid, for the estates take no risks, but they are well up to the average.
 No one possibly requires moro assur. znee of responsibility in tenants than the Astors. References as to eharaetes and financial ste.oaii19- must be forth coming if you we. hvill be tns tenant and they must be Fare unknown or oanl erences. for they V. are and what VOL earef9liy. If you a1 1 e are fairIy srv oop. U@ not eAAnowgho yreets more s9Id sra have got, and tGars5 5a ong Tor lie . q tain of being able to meet the rent foa the term of the lease, do not try to ren; an Astor house. You will be refused.
 AS 8 matter of fact, the Astor rent rolls, if one could secure copies of them would be an excellent commercial di. reetory, far more reliable within the limited sphere, perhaps, than anything ever attempted in this city. Ninety five per cent of the persons whose names are on them pay tho rent they agreed to pay on tho first of every month. Those on the rolls who do not disappear when their leases are up or before if possible. The Asters are not hard landlords, but they ere very businesslike, and the dis. possess proceeding is resorted to when. ever occasion demands
 Though of Dutch stock the AstorE have no feeling of friendliness for the liquor traffic The saloon keeper is not wanted, even at the high rates he offers, and neither is any other sort of tenant who is likely to clash with the police. From time to time, of course, persons not i'll favor with the authorities creep into Astor properties, but when discov- cred they are busted as quickly and az quietly as possible.
 So far as Improvements go, the estates are behind many of the other large landlords and 0 host of the smaller ones. Up to very recent period the manage ment of the family possessions was sx. ceedingly unprogressive, and it is hard ly up to what might be expected of it yet. 1t is urged in defense of this policy that various sections of the city i'll 1 which Astor holdings are large are at present undergoing change and that alterations appropriate ill character will be made later. That is the trouble with the Astors They are always backward in aiding a change. Their conservatism holds them in check, while smaller and weaker men take the risk, and often they stand ill the way of progress by presenting immense blocks of property directly in the line of great improve ments. If fchanges are effected all around them, they will alter also, but they arc always the last to do so.
 Tn the matter of individual repairs, decorations and the like they are not liberal, but they have the reputation of doing what they promise. Usually resi- dences gre put in order before the new tenant goes in, and then the occupant has got to be very careful. It is not ex. pected by the estates that much money will Do spent upon the house except ct long intervals
 The Astors hold few tenements ana flats directly, though they own the ground upon which hundreds of such structures stand This kind of building is not popular with either branch cf the family, and they only have to do with 1t so far as receiving leasohoid