The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-04-19

nearly 1000 acres. all bought within one
year. He is closing one of the most
beautiful lakes on the island 10 public
use. as Mr.. Vanderbilt win do with
Lake Success IF he gets his way. North
of his estate is the Port Washington
colony, including Howard Gould.
Bourke Cochran and others. On the
outer edge Of the zone ~. O.. Whitney
owns, but hardly uses his great
Mheatley Hin estate. which alone Is 2
per cent of the entire ffteen-twenty-
mile limit.
Mr. Whitney has so. 900 acres in the
Adirondacks; he has sixty acres in
Sheepshead bay On the dve-teH-mile
zone from city hall; be has October
mountain. in LenOx; he has other es-
tates scattered here and there. but only
two of them stand in the way of pub
lie Improvement and the growth Of the
city.
The Westchester problem is further
from city hall: it belongs rather 20 the
list of suburban than Of city prob
iems-thOugh even IN this form il men
aces New XOrk's welfare, to which
suburbs are as necessary as the crowd
cd blocks themselves. The cOnstraint
OF growth in a different form but es-
senually the same, is seen ia such a
village as Ossining, which Is bounded
against It's normal growth IN practical
ly every direction by the estates Of
men Ike Mr.. Rockefeller. Mead, Macy.
Branreth and McAlpin. A ring of such
estates is a Chinese wall not only
against village growth, but improves
ments that may be demanded equally
by the river population and that be-
hind, such as trolley cars or other
means of communication.
The twenty twenty fve-mile belt on
Long island includes the estates Of +.
ID. Morgan FOxhal Keene. Paul Dana.
r. L. stevens. J. /. KernOthan and the
hunting set" Partly within IT, are
the little heard of 1000 acres Of w. d.
Guthrie, Which-bec2use Mr. Guthrie IS
not one Of the advertising milli0naires,
and has no very costly mansiOn-have
not received their due public attention.
Mr.. Guthrie Is "a trust lawyer. He alone
holds per cent of all that very beau
tiful peninsula that lies between Sea
Cliff and Glen Cove on the west and
Oyster Bay on the east. In the two
former villages alone is there much OPP
pOrtunity for normal suburban growth
IN all this region. In its careful gar
dening effects Mr.. Guthrie's estate Is
remarkable even In the Long island
colony, and it's size is seldom exceeded
about New York.
Simultaneously with the rapid
growth OF big country houses" has
come the extinguishment of public
rights to shore and scenery. BY the
old laws the shore between high and
low tide was usually public highway.
Superior capital unity of purpose, le-
gal chicanery, sometimes the venality
Of - III her. =
ing these rights. Private dock build
ers cut on farmers wagons from ac-
cess 20 the beach, and one sees the
strange spectacle OF people living with
Ia a mile of the most beautiful North
Shore beaches, originally public prop
erty. now driven TO take trains for
Rockaway or COney Island for salt
bathing.
Cold Spring Harbor. though beyond
the limits Of immediate city eXpan-
sion, is the scene Of the most remark
able example of 'croWding OUT near
the metropolis. 1t was here that Mr..
Walter Jennings Of the Standard oil
company achieved his memorable feat
OF buying up a hotel accommodating
200 guests. because IL was within a half
mile of his great house on the hill
above the harbOr. The Glenana hotel.
which Mr.. Jennings thus "abated.
was fTequented by a superior class OF
summer residents. They helped the
trade of the village. They -cOmmut-
ed" on the railroad. The Huntington
express stopped for them in the morn
ing.
IL doesn't stop now. For normal de-
velopment the most beautiful spot on
Long island is bughted. The many
thousands OF dollars which Mr. Jen-
nings has given for local improvements
do not begin 20 compensate for his
closing the door Of hope upon an old
and well established village.
A few months ago the last piece Of
land anywhere on Cold Spring Harbor
was sold for improvement" The Oys-
ter Bay Pilot at that time expressed
the hope that the new owner would be
as generous" as the old i'm letting
people use his beach; il was, according
10 the Pilot, the only available one for
the people Of Hicksville. Syosset and
other inland villages. These villages
win soon be the other suburbs Of New
York City.
In this hampering Of the city's
growth there are several considera-
tions of public Importance,
The first is taxation.
In the beginning the wealthy man
who buys q dozen farms and twenty
village homes and tears down the
houses is welcomed. BlOOdgOOd Cut
ter writes poems about him. Land in
creases in value; people can sell their
old homes for more money, though for
far less than viii be possible ten or
twenty years from now,
The second stage is the discovery that
The big estate impOverishes the remain
ing taxpayers. Greenwich. TarrytoWu
and other fashionable villages have bit-
terly learned that many small payers
yield better returns than a compare
lively few big ones. Occupying the
choicest areas. the large owners pay
far less per acre toward the public bur-
dens than the general average for their
respective towns. Against higher as
sessments they contend with some
show Of justice, as their lands are used
for none but farm purposes; but IN sub
divided and built upon they would pay
far more.
An extreme case is that OF Mrs
Thomps Seton, or Seton Thompson,
I'm Greenwich Conn In the edge of a
prosperous suburb she has enclosed a
quantity of land which is to be kept I'm
its natural state for q game park, as
If Dc were I'M the heart Of the Adiron-
dacks, held back from development