The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-05

New York. May 4.-(Special.)- )-Al- most a billion dollars-seo0,000.0oo 900 an- nually, or $75,000,000 month-is the estimated sum that New Workers pay to the fortuhnate owners of metropoli- tan real estate for the privilege of 1iv- ing and doing business within the city's limits. Exact figures are a lit- tie difficult to obtain; but by dividing the population, which exceeds. 4.0oo.00O into sOO,0OO families of five persons each, and disregarding the elite who occupy homes of their own, an approx imation Is readily obtained. There are probably 50,00o families in the metro polls who pay an average Of $1,20O a year for private houses and apart ments of the better class, which equals an outlay of $60,000,000. About three times as many families pay an average of s4S0 a year for flats of the ordi- nary class, which accounts for anoth- CT $72,000,000. Then there remain 600,- 900 families living in tenements and the cheaper grade of flats at an aver age annual expenditure for rent of $1S0. This makes a total of $240, ,000, ,O0O a year for housing alone. Downtown in Manhattan, however, where the sky scrapers grow tall and close, rents are SnOrLlOuSly greater, frequently Tuu- ming as high as five dollars a square foot and the rentals of stores and of fices of all sorts swell the golden flood pouring into the coffers of the land lords by another $500, 100000. The population of the city is growing at the rate of 100000 a year, which means another 10000 families who pay an average rental of $500 year, or a to- tai of $12,0o0,0o0, and there Is an an
 l. .,4- l- at least $24,ooo.ooo more.
 One of the most populous sections of 6 great city would seem a strange place for a recluse to find an undis- turbed retreat; but the experience of John Armstrong illustrates once more the truth of the saying that there is no other loneliness like that of great crowds. When 49 years ago he come to New York from Indiana, which was all the information he vouched safed concerning himself. Armstrong's first care was to obtain an abiding place fin which he would not be disturbed. This he found in six by nine cubby- hole in the interior of the century old Fifteenth Ward hotel, which was so miserably lighted and ventilated as to afford the practical assurance that no one else would be willing to pay even the cIRnL tho room cost him. Into this he moved with his treasures. which consisted Of fifty or more suits of the most arlsto- cratic clothes of the period and a great number of pictures. Chief among the latter was a big oil portrait of Lincoln, whence grew the rumor that he had once been the friend of the great war president in his backwoods days. Five successive proprietors of the hotel had respected his wish that no one should enter the room, not even to take care of 1t. and by obtain ing his meals in the cheap restaurants of the vicinity, Armstrong made his isolation as complete as if he had hid- den in the heart of a forest. Last week. however, the ruthless hand of nroeress reached out to demolish his home. and loading his effects into a light wagon. the old man of ninety five drove away, the beloved portrait AS Lincoln across. his kpeess to pass