NEW YORK. 



659 



expenditure of this last amount [$210,000 re- 

 maining subject to the draft of the commis- 

 sioners], the ' magnificent fraud,' as some one 

 has aptly termed it, will have cost the tax- 

 payers of the State, in round numbers, $13,000,- 

 000, and the end is not yet. At the present 

 rate of expenditure its total cost when com- 

 pleted will fully reach $20,000,000, and when 

 completed it will not meet the wants for which 

 it was intended. Three fifths of the building 

 are taken up in halls and corridors, and, al- 

 though it covers more than three acres of 

 ground, all the departments of the government 

 can not be accommodated within it, and one or 

 two will be forced to remain in their present 

 quarters. A great many of its lower rooms 

 are dark and damp, and unwholesome; the 

 acoustics of the Assembly chamber are so bad 

 that it is almost impossible to hear any debate ; 

 the Court of Appeals hesitates to occupy the 

 chamber assigned it on account of the wretche;! 

 manner in which it is lighted. Add to this the 

 fact that when completed it will be an annual 

 burden of between $150,000 and $200,000 for 

 care and repairs, and that another stone may 

 crack or crumble in the arch of the Assembly 

 and possibly precipitate the whole to the cel- 

 lar below, and the people of this State have a 

 monument of folly, whose greatest good will ba 

 as a warning to future generations to plan we'll, 

 and to calculate well the cost before building." 



A site for an agricultural-experiment sta- 

 tion has been selected near the village of 

 Geneva, in Ontario County. Efforts looking 

 to the holding of an International Exhibition 

 in the city of New York have been suspended, 

 but not definitely abandoned. On the 22d of 

 January the obelisk, known as "Cleopatra's 

 Needle," which was presented to the United 

 States Government by the Khedive of Egypt, 

 and brought over by Lieutenant Gorringe of 

 the nnvy, at the private expense of Mr. Will- 

 iam H. Vanderbilt, was successfully placed in 

 position in Central Park, New York. 



Mayor Grace, of New York city, endeavored 

 to exercise his power of removing three of the 

 Police Commissioners for neglect of duty, the 

 principal allegations against them relating to 

 the cleaning of the streets. After a prolonged 

 hearing he decided upon their removal in the 

 latter part of August, but this action required 

 the approval of the Governor in order to be 

 effective. His approval was withheld on the 

 ground that at the time the mayor's action 

 was taken the power and responsibility of the 

 Police Commissioners in the matter of street- 

 cleaning had been taken away by the new law 

 providing for a separate street-cleaning depart- 

 ment. 



An incident of some interest in the city of 

 New York was the consolidation of the ele- 

 vatei railroad companies. For two years the 

 roads had been operated by the Manhattan 

 Railway Company under leases from the other 

 two companies which owned the roads, name- 

 ly, tho New York and the Metropolitan Ele- 



vated Railroad Companies. Under these leases 

 the first-named company had agreed to pay all 

 charges and expenses, including taxes and in- 

 terest on bonds, amounting to about $21,000,- 

 000, and to furnish dividends of 10 per cent on 

 the capital stock of $6,500,000 of each of the 

 other companies. It had also issued and di- 

 vided between those companies as a further 

 consideration $13,000,000 of stock of its own, 

 although it had no road and had incurred no 

 expense for construction or equipment, and 

 this stock represented no outlay of capital. 

 Early in this year the Manhattan Company 

 was in default for taxes and dividends, and it 

 was evident that it had assumed a burden 

 which it could not carry. The Attorney-Gen- 

 eral began suit against it in May for the pur- 

 pose of effecting its dissolution. The grounds 

 alleged were insolvency, forfeiture of its char- 

 ter before the leases of May, 1879, were en- 

 tered into, and illegal action in making those 

 leases, and in increasing the capital stock. In 

 July this suit was abandoned in New York 

 city, and a new one brought before Judge 

 Westbrook, at Kingston, based on allegations 

 of insolvency only. Receivers were appointed 

 and placed in charge of the property and busi- 

 ness of the elevated roads. All the companies 

 were involved in litigation during the summer, 

 and the stock was much depressed. The pur- 

 pose of one of the suits was to recover from 

 the Manhattan Company the property of tho 

 New York Company, on the ground that the 

 terms and conditions of the lease had not been 

 fulfilled. There were at the same time intima- 

 tions of proceedings by the Manhattan for the 

 recovery of its stock, or the par value thereof 

 in money, from the other companies, on tho 

 ground that no consideration had been given 

 for it. A decision rendered by Judge West- 

 brook on the 21st of October denied the claim 

 of the New York Company for tho recovery 

 of its property, and intimated that there .might 

 be a valid counter-claim for the value of the 

 Manhattan stock. Other decisions, one of 

 them rendered by tho United States Circuit 

 Court, held the agreement and leases of May, 

 1879, valid as against the stockholders, and 

 upheld the doctrine that the boards of direc- 

 tion had power to enter into and modify 

 agreements without the express approval of 

 stockholders. On the 22d of October the old 

 agreement was modified so ns to reduce tho 

 obligations and payments of the Manhattan 

 Company, which had passed under a new con- 

 trol, and immediately afterward the receivers 

 were discharged and tho company's affairs 

 placed in the keeping of its officers and direct- 

 ors. Subsequently still another compact was 

 made whereby the Manhattan Company was 

 to issue $13,000,000 more of its own stock to 

 be exchanged for that of the other companies, 

 thus practically absorbing them and consoli- 

 dating the entire system under an undivided 

 control. Serious charges were made that tho 

 entire proceedings were virtually directed by 



