Omaha daily bee., 1909-05-14

A divorce suit Involving several families
on the social upper levels Of Manhattan
and Brooklyn does not differ in essentials
from the average of domestic cases aired
in court, but introduces a new element sus-
gestive of the abundance of variety avail
able IL the ground is properly worked. The
prime cause of the trouble in the family
was the wife's penchant for sentimental
affinities. Limericks and affinities do not
necessarily travel abreast or tandem. Both
may be wholly Innocent OF relationship,
Somehow, in the. present case, the liner
ticks were built on the concealed Joker
plan, and as one Of these jokers exploded
at an unseemly stage of the game the
shock was sufficient to remove hubby's
spectacles and put him next to the
affinities. This pair did the business:
There was a young woman named Eta,
Who really should have known better.
Her folks did what they could
To make her be good;
Not succeeding, said, oh, let her"
There was a young man named Ed,
Who always went early to bed.
He married a wife,
The bane of his life;
He'll be far better off when he's dead.
In three months time, and that, too, at
a season when there were complaints Of
business stagnation. there we're $61, 600, 600
of investment, present or prospective, in
new building construction in Manhattan
alone. Judging by the presidents, says
the New York Times, this of itself is to be
accepted as irresistible evidence Of the
speedy return of business prosperity of all
kinds. If this average be kept up during
the remainder of the year-and the indica-
tons are that 1t will be-S2SO, O0O, 1000 will
have been converted into fixed capital In
real estate investment on the island of
Manhattan. 1t is, of course, explained In
part by the fact that money is so plentiful
that 1t can be obtained for real estate in
vestment at a rate which would make the
interest charge not much more than 4 per
cent. In this way funds are being diverted
from the speculative markets to those of
real estate improvements.
The indications are that this real estate
investment, almost unparalleled, since 1t
was exceeded but once, that time being In
the year of 1901, is to be continued through
out the year, as has been said. That judg-
ment is based upon what is known to be
contemplated investments in the summer
and fall. Some of them are going COM
pletely TO change the character of Fourth
ohAOh SfhUit "
fourth street. That avenue is to reflect
or supplement the business impulse which
has converted Fifth avenue from Central
park to Fourteenth street into the worlds
most brilliant shopping tho~roughfare.
Merchants who do not feel justified in en-
failing the enormous expense which build
ing construction on Fifth avenue involves
are venturing upon Fourth avenue to the
east and upon the cross streets as well.
Two new hotels on Forty-second street,
east of Fifth avenue, are among the con-
templated reat estate improvements of this
spring. One Is to be twenty-four stories
In height, and another, thanking it at Mad
ison avenue and Forty-second street, is to
be thirty-one stories in height. And these
two ventures alone will represent new in
vestment in hotel properties In New York
not far fIom 100000. 1t is in part due to
this real estate activity in New York that
steel and iron manufacturing, at least on
its structural side, and that the manufae-
ture of machinery and tools have been
considerably stimulated since the first Of
the year. ~ -s.