The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-24

discovering with great uneasiness that
1t Is tremendously underbuilt. That, in
other words, it is going to be a mighty
hard proposition this year for all the
people desiring them to find homes
within it's borders.
This is being shown, thus early in
season, by the constantly increasing
rents. They are going up everywhere
inside the city lines with unprece-
denied rapidity.
or course the rise Is greatest in
Manhattan. There are probably five
would-be tenants to every well-placed
private house below, Fifty-seventh
street, and two or three for every
similar house located further up the
island. The result, of course, is an APP
FALLING appreciation of the value Of
such houses and consequently of their
rent-drawing power.
So far as the territory below Fifty
seventh street is concerned the rise of
residence property is quite natural. 1t
has long been foreseen, and every one
understands that it must so on. Such
sites are limited to the central zone
Of the island through which Fifth
avenue runs, and are not to be found
more than three or four blocks east or
west of that great thoroughfare Of
combined business and fashion. Loca-
tons nearer either to the North or the
East river are in East Side" or West
Side" neighborhoods. given up almost
wholly to the working people. and
| solidly built with tenement houses all
of which are crowded to their utmost
capacity. Each year 'buslRess," ever
moving steadily northward, absorbs
| another slice of the desirable resi-
dence section" and by and by--not so
very far in the future either-none at
all will be left.
North of Fifty-seventh street 1t is
different. There are plenty Of unbuilt-
upon sites, in what would be exceed
ingly desirable residence neighbour
hoods" were they only farther south.
And since. in the very nature OF things,
no more than the constantly decreas-
ing territory of that sort can ever be
found there, the territory to the north
must be made to do.
Had there been the amount OF build
1
year there would now be no dearth of
/ private residences, but owing to the
strikes there hasn't, and the result is
n that hundreds, probably thousands, of
I families that wish to occupy houses
| in Manhattan must either go to the
hotels, occupy apartments or take to
the suburbs and the outlying bor-
| oughs.
| AS a matter OF fact, this class of
New Workers does not suffer materi-
| ally from the present state of things.
| It may not be SO pleasant to live in an
apartment or a hotel, or to go out of
| Manhattan altogether, but any one of
these things may be done without
noteworthy sacrifice. Sympathy Is
hardly needed for them, therefore,
| despite the fact that they are grum-
bling tremendously at the situation.
But sympathy is deserved by the
working people. They are really suf-
fering from the present undertaking,
for, owing to the strikes, which have
kept nearly all building operations at
a standstill practically all summer,
there are many tenement houses now
unbuilt that should be filed with ten
ants, and that would be in a days
time. could some sort of Aladdin's
magic that would raise them in a
| night be invoked.
The newspapers of the town have
had a good deal to say about the
money loss in wages sustained
through the strike by the men en-
| ployed in the building trades. This
loss totals $4,000, 900, 1t is said,
and that Is a very great sum. No
matter whether 1t is the employers
or the men who are to blame the
loss of so much wage money is a
very great pity. To be frank about
1t, the public has little sympathy with
either employer or men on this ac-
count, because everybody knows that
a little yielding on both sides would
have kept the wheels Of the business
industry going.
But there is a great deal of SYM
pathy felt for the workers whose rents
are being raised on account of the I'M
| derbuilding. Unlike those who are
looking for homes in desirable resi-
dence quarters, these working folk
cannot go into the outlying boroughs
| or the suburbs. They can affored Meth
er the time to travel to and from their
work night and morning nor the money
that such back and forth travel costs
The building employers and their
workmen have danced their dance, and
now these poor East and West Siders
must pay the fiddler.
There are two signs in the Borough
| Of Manhattan the like of which can
be found. probably, in no other city on
earth. One, displayed conspicuously
near the entrance of a measley little
restaurant which nestles in the shadow
| Of the tower-like walls Of the twenty
six story Park Row building, reads:
| 80 - . .
During the warm weather the
Sourkrout will be discontinued on
account of the smell
! 49, sss ssss 80
The other is placed on wall near
the Brooklyn Bridge, where all pas
sengers entering Manhattan by bridge
| or trolley cars from Brooklyn or any
other part OF Long Island may see It.
| 1t Is worded practically as follows
ssss - 80
why Not Get Married? !"
According TO the laws of the .
. state of New York a marriage Is .
legal II the contracting parties .
apear before a notary public and .
sign a witnessed declaration that .
they intend 20 live together as .
man and wife. Step into the office .
and enter matrimony.
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