BUSINESS IN NEW YORK.
The legitimate business of New York is greater than that of any other
place in America. The city being the chief centre of our commerce,
offers the greatest advantages of any in the land to persons engaged in
trade. Merchants at a distance buy whatever they can here, because they
like to visit the place, and can thus unite business with pleasure. Two
or three millions of strangers annually visit New York, and while here
expend large amounts in purchases. People in other parts of the country
attach an additional value to an article because it was purchased in
the great city. Besides this, one is apt to find the best article in
the market here, as it is but natural that the chief centre of wealth
should draw to it the best talent in the arts and trades.
Merchants from the provinces like the liberal and enterprising spirit
which characterizes the dealings of New York merchants. They can buy
here on better terms than elsewhere, and their relations with the
merchants of this city are generally satisfactory and pleasant.
Every thing in New York gives way to business. Private neighborhoods
disappear every year, and long lines of magnificent warehouses take the
places of the comfortable old mansions of other days. There is now
scarcely a respectable neighborhood for residences below Fourth street.
The business of the community is steadily advancing up the island. The
lower part of the city is being taken up with wholesale and commission
houses and manufacturers. The retail men are constantly going up
higher. Broadway now has scarcely a residence along its entire length;
Washington Square, Waverley and Clinton Places, and even Fifth Avenue
below Twenty-third street, are being rapidly invaded by business
houses.
Enterprise, energy, and talent, distinguish the business of this city.
A man capable of acquiring a fortune can acquire it here more readily
than elsewhere, but he must have patience. The world was not made in a
day, and fortune comes slowly, but it comes surely to the man who will
work faithfully and patiently for it.
EXAMPLES.
The Harpers and Appletons, who stand at the head of the book trade in
New York, began as poor boys, and worked their way up to fortune slowly
and patiently. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a poor boatman. Daniel Drew was
a drover. A. T. Stewart an humble, struggling shop-keeper. One of the
most noted bank presidents of the city began by blacking a pair of
boots. He did his work well. These are noted instances, but there are
thousands of merchants in the city doing comfortable businesses, some
of whom will be millionaires, who began poor and friendless. They have
worked faithfully and patiently, and their lives are examples to all
beginners.
REAL ESTATE OPERATIONS.
Many capitalists have made their fortunes by successful operations in
real estate. This must not be classed with speculations in bonds or
stocks. Of course, one may be cheated in buying real estate, as well as
in any other purchase; but as a general rule, he who invests his money
in houses or lands, gets the full value of it. The rapid growth of the
city has increased the value of property in the upper sections at an
amazing rate, and has made the fortune of every one who held land in
those sections. The Astors, A. T. Stewart, Claflin, Vanderbilt, Drew,
and hundreds of others who were wise enough to foresee and believe in
the future of New York, have made handsome fortunes on the investments
made by them a few years ago.
In 1860 a gentleman purchased a handsome house in a fashionable
neighborhood. It was a corner house, and fronted on Fifth Avenue. He
paid fifty thousand dollars for it. He spent twenty-five thousand more
in furnishing and fitting up. His friends shook their heads at his
extravagance. Since then he has resided in the house, and each year his
property has increased in value. A few months ago he was offered nearly
three hundred thousand dollars for the house and furniture, and refused
it, declaring his belief, that in ten years more the property will be
worth over half a million.
A farm near the Central Park that could not find a purchaser seven
years ago at a few thousands, sold six months since, in building lots,
for as many millions.
We might multiply these instances, but the above are sufficient to
illustrate this branch of our subject.
Rented property pays handsomely. As much as twenty per cent. on the
value, is often received as the rent of a dwelling, and some of the
best Broadway stores bring their owners one or two hundred thousand
dollars annually. As all rents are paid in advance, and security
required for the larger ones, the owner is comparatively safe in his
investment.