The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-04
DEMOLIsHING HOUSES.
Many Big Fortunes Are Built Up by
Pulling Down Old buildings

New York, March 2.-The business of
pulling old houses down and segregating
them into their component parts is In all
great cities a big and fourishing one
Several men, indeed, have found millions
in Il. That may be easily understood
when one knows that 5000 is an outside
price for any structure, however, costly
about TO be demolished. and that after
II is demolished everything about 1t is
sold again, save and except the mortar
between the bricks and the plaster upon
the walls.
All sorts and conditions of men come
to buy of the secondhand dealer. For
he buys not only whole houses, but all
manner of interior fittings. Al one big
East Side New York city yard they tell
a story of sci of shelves and counters
that went in and out of the establishment
six times, and upon what ought to have
been the lucky seventh exit. got them
selves burned up. That same yards mas
ter furnished all the joists and timbers
used In framing the famous Vanderbilt
mansions. Indeed, he had yearly con-
tract with the men who did the finest
building in the city to save for them all
sound beams. ioists, newell posts and solid
mahogany timbers of such and such di-
mansions.
The fine builders know, as do all men
wise In timber, that wood can in no way
be so well seasoned as by years of use
The longer the use the better provided
only that.sthe wood Is kept under cover
and protected from wear. A floor beam.
for example, that has been down seventy
years Is worth FIVE times as much as a
similar stick fresh from the woods It
viii not warp under any conditions short
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by use there seems TO be wrought an I'M
accountable change in fiber. TO under
stand X you have but 10 listen to blow
struck upon such beam in contrast 10
the note of one green or steam seasoned.
The old timber gives a thin, clear note,
wholly musical, whereas the green sticks
voice is hoarse and harsh, and the steam
dried one is fiat and inelastic as the steam
dried wood Itself.
II Is this resilient resonance which sets
the makers OF musical instruments next
10 the master builders among customers
for secondhand timber. They buy all
planks and beams sawed from apple and
pear stock all very old, clear spruce, and
occasionally old foreign hardwoods. The
amount Of apple and pear timber found
by this dealer, who has removed near
half the Knickerbocker houses in lower
New York, IS a surprising testimony to
the uxurlance Of the orchards once cover
ing so mucn or the tOWnB race,
This particular yard covers a whole city
block and is the very moral of orderly
confusion. The head clerk can tell you
in a minute II any particular thing is in
stock-and II must be a very unusual
thing in stone, or wood, or iron that is
not You may buy bronze knocker a
hundred years old. or a bit of fancy
stained pine, smelling still Of the shop.
At one side five hundred marble mantels
stand like monuments to dead homes.
Over against them you see half an acre
OF doors, windows ana half-glass Office
partitions. In the middle there are piles
OF brick and stone like young towers of
Babel-and this, although It is the yards
settled policy to sell brick as fast as
bought so as to make on handling serve.
Tiles, Tagging, gas pipe, gas fixtures in
multitude, bath tubs, what not, crowd a
great separate stretch.
On beyond them you find the most in
teresting things OF all; old fan-lighted ma
hogany doors. mahogany sldeboards built