The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-26
SOME VALUABLE LAND.
Real Estate Is Costly in New York
 and London.

From Tit Bits.
 Thirty-four pounds a foot is the price which jury recently decided that the London county council must pay for a small strip of land by the St. James corner of Piccadilly, the total cost of the plot, 12l0 square feet in area. bein~ rough ly estimated at e41 600. At this rate 1t is easy to calculate that modern subur- ban garden, 100 feet long and 30 feet wide. would represent a value of 9102, ,000 the comfortable income, at 5 per cent, of more than 95000 year; while an area of this golden land would leave little change out of a check for E1, 800, 600.
 One might we'll think that this Picca- dilly strip was the most valuable piece of land in the world but as matter of fact, the price paid for it Is quite modest compared with that paid for land in the city of London and in New York, as tn 3 following figures, collected by the writer, will show
 Just ten years ago the Hanover Ma tional bank purchased c043 square feet of land at the corner of Nassau and Pine streets, New York, at the price of nearly 845 a square foot; and a few months later Mir ]. E. Searles acquired an ad- jacent plot, 2959 feet in area. at exactly $50 a square foot. At the latter rate it is easy to estimate piece of land no larger than an ordinary drawing room say 15 feet square-would be worth f1- 25o, while an arm chair would cover ground whAA it would take a whole years earnings of many city clerk to pay for.
 But much larger prices than these even have been refused for New York land. Not long ago the enormous sum of ESQ a square foot was offered for few rods of ground on the southeast corner of Broadway and Wall street. the owner of which-Mr. B. D. Sillman-demands f10 square foot. or the almost incredible price of s4.356,Ooo an area.
 Some years ago tiny strip of land only one foot wide. at the northeastern corner of Lexington avenue found pur- chaser for G140; quite recently the New York stock exchange paid e3O6 square yard for some land which formed part of the Western Union Broad street property; G6G a seutre foot was the price paid for the sou est corner of Broad and Wall streets, and d small plot at the southeast corner S5 feet long and 20 feet wide Ono larger than many good sized drawing room) was sold for 949000.
 Such are some recent prices paid for land on Manhattan Island, the whole of which was at one time bought for 64 shillngs a sum which would not today buy a couple of square inches In Wal street Little less fabulous is the growth in value of many square mile In Penn- sylyania The whole of this vast state, with it's 45215 square miles, was bought by William Penn at the rate of go acres for 1 shilling Today 1t is certain that the entire purchase money for the state, al6OOO. would be contemptuously rejected if it were offered in exchange for as much land in the heart of Pittsburg as would make an average suburban garden In Chicago a plot of land which was sold a generation ago for e120 is said to be worth at least E4.OO0,000 today.
 In the city of London more than f3o an inch frontage has been paid for land between King Williams statue and Trin- ity square: sites have been sold in Grace church street at e1,26O,000 an acre, and the ground around Lombard street is val ued at over e2.OCOO0o an acre; while in Glasgow land had become so valuable that some years ago as much as i1o lo shiIlings was paid per square yard
 But all these figures. enormous as they are, become paltry when compared with the value of gold and diamond bearing land. Twenty years or so ago Ilo.ooo would have purchased from the Boers the whole of the Witwatersrand farms. which are valued today at e3oo,OoO,Wo; and every acre bought dozen years ago by the Coolgardle Gold Mining and Pros pecting company for 10 shillings would now be considered cheap at G3O,Vo.