Omaha daily bee., 1907-05-07
ROUND ABOUT NEW YORK.
Ripples on the Current % life IN the
Metropolis

Ripples ON the Current OF life In the
Metropolis
one OF Buffalo Bllls thrillers took a run
on Broadway one day last week and made
every mothers son on the walks jump for
a fire escape. The freak was a motor
locomotive number 00e Union Pacific over
land Limited" which appears in that part
Of the wild west show depicting the famous
train hold-up at Big Springs From where
It had been made, Hoboken, 10 It's Madison
Square Garden destination. the engine made
trail NJ scared horses and astonished peo-
pie BY means OF q special apparatus the
loud puffing sound Of a real locomotive
was reproduced adding greatly to the eff
feet
This substitute locomotive was designed
by Miller Reese Hutchinson, president OF
the Universal Motor company. and was
built at the plant OF the Funk Engineering
company, Of HobolSen, The smoke Is PRO-
duced by a special device, and in order
that the machine may turn corners II Is
fitted with a mechanism for raising the
front boyle wheel and the front driving
wheel OF the set on each side, 30 that It
becomes four-wheeled vehicle which may
be easily steered.
rooms IN the new Plaza hotel which will
cost him $4,000, has called attention TO the
staggering prices paid for accommoda lions
in the great hotels and apartment houses
of New York, says the Times. Fifth ave-
nue.. Of course. is the street on which the
highest rentals are charged, At the Hol-
land house. for instance, there are suites
consisting of nothing more than two rooms
"a parlor and a bath-costing $4,000 year.
These are corner suites, with frontage
on Fifth avenue. Fully thirty-five suites
in this hotel are leased by persons who are
practically permanent guests. No other
city can show anything like such prices for
hotel accommodation. nor even London
during the season, when all hotel rates are
raised from 30 to 80 per cent.
At the Waldorf-Astoria there are a num-
Der Of permanent guests paying in the
vicinity of $4,000 year for small suites.
Prices of an impressive nature are likewise
the rule among the apartment hotels in
the Fifth avenue district. At the Renais-
sance. on the corner of Forty-third street
and Fifth avenue suites may be made up
according to pleasure of the persons leas-
ing them at the rate Of $500 to $500 for
each room per month.
In the apartments above the Van Nor
y y
avenue and sixtieth street, 1O-room suites
cost as much as $4,000 a year, unfurnished.
At the Bohemian. on the corner of F'fty-
ninth street, $1,000 year for a furnished
apartment and 1850 for one unfurnished
are by no means unusual figures. But when
1t is considered that James J. Hill and
other magnates frequent this region when
in town, such prices begin to appear less
astonishing. Apartments at Sherry's are
leased at the rate Of $1,000 per room a year.
The average cost of small suites in the
Sherry building is 5000 per year.
OF course, almost everybody stops to see
the fire engines go by, but the one place in
New York where this apparatus gets the
largest audience is on Broadway, between
Thirty-fourth and Forty-second streets, on
a pleasant Sunday night. As a rule that
thoroughfare is less crowded with vehicles
and street cars on a Sunday evening than
at any other time in the waking hours of
New Workers, and this gives the drivers the
best chance In the world to let their horses
out to the full speed. AS the engines or
hook-and-ladder trucks go tearing up or
down town every passerby on the pave
ments on both sides of the street flock to
the curb. and not only waits until the fly
ing apparatus passes by, but stands watch
ing 1t until It is out of sight To stand on
the rear platform of a Broadway car and
watch this spectacle Of arrested humanity
is to get a fresh impression of the warm
interest the average New Yorker takes in
the working of the IRE department.
There Is a movement on foot TO have the
salaries of the supreme court justices OF
HrAw he
stipend OF 1880 a year to $4,000 The
prime cause Of the move is TO prevent the
high-standard incumbents of the bench
from being weaned away by corporations
able to pay $4,000 or more a year for the
brains they need. Among the men who
have left the supreme court bench OF re-
cent years are Morgan j. O'Brien and JUS
tees Hatch. Russell and Kenehck Justice
! O'Brien was guaranteed $25, 900 a year wher
ne left his place on the supreme bench.
Reports for the year 1906 disclose that
New York City had the most startling
and stupendous growth and real estate
activity the world ever saw in one city.
| Rapid transit improvements at New York
together with the tremendous growth OF
population, were responsible for a total
rise of land values in Greater New York
and it's suburbs last year amounting &c
5000, 100000.
And the activity of New York realty IN
general is shown by the fact that the total
recorded real estate operations during 1901
involved 81. 965, 1876, $50.
The record breaking activities include
the continuous growth OF New York in
wealth and population, the construction OF
rapid transit routes-subways and bridges
which will total in value s1,OoO,o0 900. a
stupendous figure.
Present values in most of the suburbs
are rising under the influence of steady
buying Every month or two adds from
10 to 20 per cent to values in many OF
the more desirable sections. The WORK
OF the city's appraisers was closed before
current high price levels had been at.
tained. 1t is believed they will show even
| greater INCREASES for the next year.
Half OF the $4,000 900 increase on the
assessment books was due to building
operations, leaving a net increase In land
values of SS0O,OOO,OO0
The total assessed value of real estate
in ali the boroughs Of the greater city
was IS, 7Ss, is7,245 for 1906.
Abbreviated bathing suits, top and bot,
tom, are a source of great concern to the
residents of Rockaway Beach. The scan