REAL ESTATC GOSSIP Dull Summer Season Is Not Uapo Vot lit/It/ I ^ll 'THINGS ARE STILL LIVELY Buying for Investment a Feature of Market. SUPPLY AND DEMAND UNEQUAL "Would-Be Investors Cannot Find Suitable Properties in Which to Put Their Money. The past week In the local real estate market has been a lively one, despite the depressing heat There continue to be numerous transfers of both residential and business properties in the city and of residences and lots In the outlying districts. No particular part of the District has been favored, but all have shared alike. Values are said to be Increasing right along, notwithstanding the Influence of labor conditions Several brokers report soles that Indicate a marked Increase In value within several months, especially in the suburbs. There s?ems to be a special demand for suburban places within easy walking or ridir.g distance of a car line, but sufficiently removed from the lines of traffic to Insure rest and quiet. Choice sites of this kind are being gobbled up very fast and prices are consequently going up. "Ths dull summer season has not struck us yet." said Mr Plllsbury of David Moore's office to a Star reporter today. "Our men have had a splendid season and we are still busy showing property even in the face of the exhausting heat. "The old story of plenty of buyers and little to sell has certainly been thoroughly demonstrated this year. The meager number of new houses which were really salable were quickly disposed of. leaving only V\?-?o . tvy- ? olthrtr t rw> hi another?the demand is for detached housfs and only about r> per cent of the houses built ae of this class. Some builder. some day soon, will finally perceive th? trend of opinion and the desire of the buying public and proce ed to build such houses and they will sell as -fast as they are completed. For Investment. "Buying for investment is now the feature of the market. This is evidenced by the large number of small houses, bringing attractive rentals, now being sold. The demand for this class of property has caused a marked advance In small Income houses. "Business property has. of course, continued to be In big demand, and this rise In prices has been in keeping with the predictions made by this office early In the present year. Today we have clients who will pay 10 to 20 per cent more for business property than the same property sold for less than six months ago. This Use is not phenomenal in any way?it is simply meeting new conditions and the demand for more commodious and finer accommodations for the business houses to meet the increasing business. The present business section will surely be Sertoli*!)* curtailed and the spirit of getting a location that will be permanent has taknn possession of a good many of the mer iianta on the south side of Pennsylvania avenue. This is one of the reasons for the "moving up' of the old business section which has taken place, and naturally tries have 'moved up' as well." Time for Bargains. "Thi.*ir t -mporary homes. BUSIEST SEASON. Moore & Hill Say Demand for Real Estate Has Never Been Greater. "Tl e present s. axon." ??|<1 William A. lltU. [>r> stUfnl of Mr.' & 1111. Inc.. "has busiest in the history of our office. If t .? r? is any suninn-r dullness we have failed to see it Tin demand for real estate has never been greater. This condition applies to every branch of sa'es, but more | t specially perhaps to the sale of residence | yro\? rty. "As Indicative of the active business of the pr? sent season. 1 can say that out of ti.lrty houses at the corner of Quincy and Eckington streets northeast there haw alr? ady been sold twenty-three, most of these before completion. The sale of these has been principally to persons who will occupy them as home?. Several, however, that have been sold as Investments were rented in each case before the transfer was closed. "In suburban nronertv 11KV7 hae >^.'n behind any preceding year. Our sales ill Cleveland Park have been especially gratifying. One house, which because of change | of plans of owner, was thrown on the inariket shortly after its orig nal purchase, was I eold again within a few weeks to a local ?purchaser. Tills transaction has been par1 aJleled in a numlx-r of previous case* where i the original purchaser found it necessary ' to give up his home n that delightful sub' urb. "In our rent department we are hav ng a very early beginning for the fall business. 1 As Illustrating the state of the rental hustings 1 will say that in one apartment huild. lug which will not he completed until Oc' tobei 1, we have already rented one-third of the suites of rooms. These apartments have all been renter! simply from the p ans. Our calls for property from ?;utside duums how an lncieasc every mouth." REAL ESTATE TRANS 1 r if. j>j^ dWCOP. 7r"&lf&76.NW$0LD * ' ST 6QLO?N3??G ENTERPRISE IN ALEXANDRIA PROPOSED APARTMENT HOUSE KNOWN AS "THE FAIRFAX." Project Under "Way and Will Be Pushed to Completion by a Syndicate. The syndicate which purchased the northeast corner of King and Columbus streets, Alexandria. Va.. has authorized the construction of an apartment house on that site, and the work Is being pushed as rapidly as possible. The task of tearing down the old buildings which now occupy the site will be completed in about two weeks. It Is expected that the structure will be completed about February li> next. The building will be known as the Fairfax apartments, and will be of the most approved type of construction, and will be equipped with modern appliances throughcut. It has a frontage of fifty feet on King street and 100 feet on Columbus street. It will be four stories high with basement. Two commodious stores are planned, facing King street, and the rest of tire building is arranged for housekeeping apartments, fourteen in number, consisting of live rooms, kitchen and bath. Kach apartment will be equipped with electric lights, electric bells, speaking tubc-s, hot and cold water, dumb-waiter service, cold storage, etc. The building will be heated by hot water, and the basement affords every facility for convenience and storage, also containing a fully t quipped laundry. The tacade is designed along the lines of | the Spanish type of architecture; copper baj windows and Iron grilles forming bal[ i>nn> o k i 1 ! ha intrr?/^n/?oH TKo ontro nna the apartments will-be conspicuously enhanced by an artistically designed marquise.* It is intended to erect a pjrgola on the roof that it may be used in summer as a roof garden. Award of Contract. The contract for the construction of the building has been uwarded to Mr. J. 0. Knight of this city. The architects are Oscai G. Vogt and Milton Dana Morrill associated. The oflicers and directors, who are all prominent Alexandrians, are A. S. Doniphan, president; W. A. Smoot, jr., vice president; Clarence C. Deadbeater, secretary and treasurer; John Leadbealor. E. S. Lead beater, \V. A. Smoot, T. C. Smith. \I n Morrill I f Sm.u.t unrt W W R acker. Promoters of this enterprise feel that Alexandria lias great need of a modern apartment house, and this seems to be corroborated by the fact thit the majority of the apartments In this house have already been spoken for. Only a few weeks ago the company secured a charter, and since then no time has been lost in pushing the plans to completion. It Is the intention of thosj interested to have the work of construction pushed in the same energetic manner. Promoters of the apartment say that this will be the first of several projects for houses of a similar character in this city. It is also announced that there seem to be splendid opportunities for the opening up now of new subdivisions in and around the city, and also for the erection of mediumsized detached houses. HOUSES FLOODED. Capitol Hill Sewers Failed to Carry Off Water. Residents of Southeast Washington in the vicinity of (1th and B streets were made aware very forcibly last Thursday evening of the inadequate sewerage facilities in that section. When the heavy rain of that evening began to tlood the streets and the water Injured into the sewers they were suddenly dumfounded to witness the phenomenon of sewer traps turned into outlets for fountains of muddy water. During the time the storm was at its height it was impossible to prevent basements and cellars from being Hooded to a depth of several Inches. The water boiled from the sewer openings under high pressure from the conduits beneath the streets and the occupants were forced to stand by and see their property damaged without being able to lift a hand to alter the conditions. The sewers simply failed to carry ofT the water. Several basements were so flooded that It w in Ltxtvc v> crr.a iu tai * uicui uui. To Save Telegraphers' Nervea. From the Terhnica! World Magazine. Although thousands of telegraph operators have been forced out of the profession through paralysis of their hands and fltigers In the manipulation of the Morse key. it is only within the past two years that Improvements in this crude instrument have begun to be made. Dynamos have been substituted in place i 111 ' ?" ;,/.' : , ". ^;'. *' -t < ^'\tu"h:T.; - '- / x . '?,<-' " w m IfUS m I ^fSla FARMERS VS. MINERS. Hydraulic Mining and the Federa Government in California. From Mines and Minerals. The richness of the gold fields of Call fornla, discovered a generation or mor ago, often seems almost fabulous. Scarcel a stream of the western slope of the Sier rae but held hi its gravel bed quantltie of this precious metal. When thes streams had been robbed of the trcasur by the early miners it whs found tha enormous wealth could be extracted fror the old gravel beds of the rivers of th tertiary period. Thousands of men worke for years washing this gravel, and hun dreds of millions of cubic yards of thef ancient deposits were thus -vashe through their sluice boxes into th streams leading to the great rivers o the state. This mad rush for gold at the expens of the future development of the' In dustrial conditions of the valloys wa aided in various ways by both the stat and national governments, and little o no thought was then given to tne in juries which might be caused later b these operations. But as the populatioi of the valleys increased, and the agri culturists found that the accumulation o - . .. .v..-- % ' ' > " ' ' ' ' . : : \v . , . " * - ' - ' ' : , - / jf: ' " -V J EK AND NEW OFFICE ,BI S * Wr] i K^ s^lm 58> * ggpjplg ^ aUBf^BPS^r < 1 ftl l?'':;^^ yl^B . ! ^^Zg0 iBP^if u1. ,?~ 4L~~ ' ?-^j? - -~ ---^i" - ?-^. ? -,-,.y ... ?~r "??. mining- debris was working incalculable Injury to their farms by often eo'tring j their land with same and by causing widespread overflow, a growing hostility arose toward the miners, who were believed to be responsible for such injurious conditions afrinor the rivers The hnstilitv thus engendered grew to such magnitude e that finally both state and nation awoke ly to the seriousness of conditions, and for years engineers and legislators have been endeavoring to solve the debris problem. 3 The problem of what to do with the e debris resulting from years of Hydraulic e mining, which still remains in large t quantities in the upper rivers and in their mountain tributaries, and how to n protect the valley farms from further e Injury due to the downward flow of this j old debris, has been the subject of both state and national investigation, until finally an act was passed by Congress in ,e 1S03 providing for a federal^ board com u poseu or three engineer officers of the e army, to be called the California debris f commission. This commission found a condition -for the improvement of which e there was neither precedent nor previous experience, and everything had to be s originated de novo, as no such condie tion exists elsewhere in the world, r The first efforts of the commission were directed toward an examination of the y mines in order to see what relief could n be given to' the miners who were clamoring for permission to re3Uins minf ing, which had been stopped by court > ' i * W.. H m _ W - , ' ' ... v" : '"'<< , _n - x&- _ //:. _. * > ' < '"' ''*'. "? ' ";xV\.. ' "*ttlF iPAaT^3P.^r. JILDING AT FOURTEE MBBBBBBBBBB^^38BBHiBBBBBBB 35BEE3CS ^ 8^^ WS&lm ? "-tern* f ~~H? I -? ; I Injunctions at the Instance of the farmers of the lower valleys. It was found that the construction of dams In the canons below the mines would In mo.n cases store all the material that would be removed. After many years of study of the problem It was seen that either tl.e logcrib dam or the brush dam would answer the purpose for all small mines. These two types of dam are now in general use for Impounding debris for the protection of the lowlands. Of the two the log crib Is the usual type. It consists of a "cob-house" crib made of large logs which are notched and drift bolted together. It is filled with quar.-led rock and chinked against leakage. The limit of height p'acej on these dams by the commission for safety Is forty feet. The brush dam Is constructed with strong, live brusTh, ami may be twenty feet high, at least ten feet long. Thes.* darns must comply strictly with the specifications of the commission, and before beginning to mine the hydraulic miner must obtain permission or license of the California debris commission, which Is not given unless all the conditions specified as to their dams have been complied with. In addition, a monthly report is required by the commission -Showing the quantity of material mined, the amount of water used dally, and the conditions of th! dams. DeputyUnited States marshals are also constantly employed inspecting the dams nnd mines to see that all the requirement are com- i * Vi ' J^iicu nmi. . v.-' " ? .. . * ; - * ;? . . NTH AND F STS. N. W. Ssasa^^SL H iiiiiiiiiiiiii^igear/Q ? mv/)T/oM wmmcmwrriT CSf M/Cft CHANGED HANDS V?04ST W??K' INVENTED STEEL SKELETON DEATH OF ENGINEEB WHO SOLVED THIS PROBLEM. His Name Was William L? Baron Jenney?Hl? Method Now Generally In Um in This Country. From the Engineering News. We briefly noted In our obituary column two weeks ego the death of William Le Baron Jenney, a prominent Chicago architect, and a member of the firm of Jenney, aaunuie & jensen or 171 Lta saile street. We are Indebted to the Arm for additional Information concerning Mr. Jenney's career, with full statement of Mr. Jenney's work In connection with the Introduction of steel skeleton construction for office buildings. We print lt nearly In full, as follows: In 1863 Mr. Jenney graduated from the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, ajid In 1854 he entered the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufacture* at Paris. Here his career was a brilliant one. and he received his diploma in 185tt. During 1858 he again visited France, and remained a year and a half, engaged in the study of architecture and art. After the war, In 18CS, he went to Chicago and began his professional career. His early works of note were Grace Episcopal Church, Wabash avenue ajid 16th street; the Portland block. Washington and Dearborn streets, built Just after the tire, and the Maaon building. It was Mr. Jenney who invented and made the first application of the steel skeleton type of construction now used universally in tall buildings. In the fall of 1883 he was appointed architect for the Home Insurance Company of New York city, and Instructed to prepare designs for a tall, fireproof office building to be located on the normeast corner of Adams and La Salle streets, Chicago, and to he named "The Home Insurance Building;" he was given further Instructions that the pkins above the second story should provide for the ] maximum number of well-lighted small offices. The Instructions further stated tha,t the building committee were. aware that this would necessitate very small piers ?smaller, probably, than were admissible If of ordinary masonry construction, unless perhaps In the upper stories. The architect was requested to report to the building committee the method of construction that would saisfy the requirements for stability and for small piers. It naturally followed that if brick or stone were insufficient to carry the loads on the piers a material must be provided that would support a greater load per unit of section. Architects had often been obliged to build an iron column Into the masonry pier where the load was exceptionally great. Mr. Jenney had done the same thing, building Iron columns Into the small piers some years before. The natural solution of the problem was to lnciose an Iron column within each of the small masonry piers, thus satisfying the three requirementssmall piers, strength and flreproofing. Solution Found. The question of a column 15 feet high under the extreme variation of temperature, say 100 degrees F. or more, from the hot sun In summer to the excessive cnlrt In wlnta now presented Itself. A solution was soon found by Mr. Jenney, by supporting the walls and floors of each story Independently on the columns, thus dividing the total movement Into as many parts as there were stories, the expansion and contraction In no one story being of sufficient importance to require special consideration. The drawings were then prepared and the first design for a fireproof skeleton building was made and presented to the building committee of the Home Insurance Company for their acceptance. As business men, they naturally inquired. "Where is there such a building?" The architect replied, "Your building at Chicago will be the first." This naturally suggested to the company the very important question. "How do you know It is go?d?" The architect proposed to submit his designs and calculations to one or more brirlee engineers of distinction, as Hi#* p.ini. pan}- might select, the design for the skeleton building resembling, in many respects, iron railroad bridges standing on end, side i by stde. The columns in the Home Insurance building were of cast iron, the riveted columns of plates and angles being at that time thought, too expensive. It was in i this building that the first Bessemer steel beams were used, manufactured by the Carnegie-Phipps Company, who stated at the time that the Home Insurance building was the first in the United States to use steel beams in its construction. It not only introduced the steel skeleton construction to the world, anl was the first building in America to use steel beams in its rnnstrnrtir*r? Knf ~?" list to the requirements of a fine office building*, such as wind bracing; thorough flreprooflng; rapid running and safe elevator cars; light and well-ventilated rooms and corridors; fan-lights along the corridor side of the rooms, adding to the light of the corridor and to the ventilation of the rooms; an electric plant; provision of offices with tile vaults handsome in their appointments, and a system of plumbing of the highest modern type. All these appointments are now common to all good office buildings, hut they were first used in the west in the Home Insurance bull This Part of City Participating in Good Times. RECENT ADVANCE IN PRICES Sales on East Hunitnl t in ? coin Park. EIGHTH STREET IS BOOMING s Influence of Railroad and the Other Improvements Is Already Felt. * Investments Are Being Made. ? During the past five years the eastern ' section of the city has seen some wonder- , ful Improvements. First, the railroad carna and purchased square after square of ground, starting In South Washington and going across the eastern section clear to tha reform school, building all sorts of buildings along the tracks such as warehouses and coal dumps. Ninety per cent of the people who sold to the railroad reinvested in real estate. The same can be said of the people who owned the ground taken by the government for the House and Senate office buildings. These people as a irule bought a comfortable home an.I re- t invested the balance in investment proper- * ties. There Is very little vacant ground to !>? t had this side of the avenue bridge, and the only salvation Is for the government to fill In the flats and build a sea wall near the Anacostla bridge, so that there will l*? some ground to build on In the future. New Dwelling*. From the Capitol to the Eastern branch. Including Bennlng. Anacostla, Twining City, In fact, every section In this vicinity, new houses can be seen In every strict and t are readily sold or rented on completion. * ' There are fewer vacant houses In this section than any other, and according to the last police census the southeastern section grained more than any other portion of the 4 ? city. ? ' Eighth street southeast from Pennsylvania avenue to the navy yard gate Is getting to be quite a business thoroughfare on both sides of the street. East Capitol street still governs the eastern s>-ctlon prices, and there are not ten houses for sale on both sides of the street from the Capitol to Lincoln Park. me nignest prices ever received from real estate In the eastern section, outside of the prices paid by tije government, were obtained by the Arm of John F. Donohoe * Sons. They sold the southeast corner of 8d and East Capitol streets to George P. * Zurhorst for $5 per foot; the corner of 11th street and Massachusetts avenue northeast to Bernard Walls for $4: the northeast corner of 3d and B streets southeast to the German-American Building Association for * $3 per foot. About a year ago they ?oKl the east half of Grant row. which had been an eyesore to East Capitol street. The now purchasers spent considerable money, and are occupying the houses for homos Twenty-Five Years Old. This firm was established In Its present location twenty-five ycais aso, and has a business that covers. the entire section of the city. The business was established by John F. Donohoe. the senior member of the . v firm. Twelve years ago Charles F. Donohoe was taken in the firm, and six years ago Milburn J. Donohoe was added. Be- ' sides these the Arm has the following in Its . | employ: John W. Rldge'.y, Edward E. King, fk Thomas P. Kennelly, Fred S. Rogers, Mai- % colm C. Dorsey, Louis J. Dorsey and Helen G. Marr. Mr. Clarence Donatio - reports business flourishing, a great number of deals pending and settlements da ly. The firm's rent list Is among the largest of any' firm in the city, covering all sections. A specialty is made of handling estates. and they have some very large ones In their charge. The Inheritance of Ability. From the CUlengo Rfcoril-Hirtlil. W Francis Galton's researches Into genius a generation ago found little imitation until ' recent years. Nowadays, however, no year passes without the appearance of several elaborate statistical studies In which the endeavor Is made to learn whether Intellectual ability and moral character are Inherited in the same way that physical characteristics are inherited. Biologists have determined the ratio In which certain marked physical characteristics of one generation appear among the members of the second generation, and sociologists and 4 psychologists hope to be able to show a v. similar ratio for the mental and moral nnallf IfiB Some of these studies have been made In ' America, as, for instance. Dr. Woods' Investigations Into heredity In royalty, hut ' most of them come from England. Have- ' lock Kilts, for example, studied genius as he could learn of It In the Dictionary of National Biography, and published his results ii^ a volume three years ago. Now two students of the University of Iyondon, one of them holding a Galton fellowship In eugenics and the other a Galton scholarship. have published the results of a similar study, their material being the heredity shown among Oxford honor men. All Oxford graduates from lmxt-to IMC were taken and divided into three groups, each covering a period of about thirty years. The graduates whose fathers had not boen ? educated at Oxford were first excluded, ani ( then the others in each group were dlvid-d Into six divisions with reference to tlnlr rank at degree time. Then the test wis made to see whether the fat hem of the men In each division had taken cori>?.s;-?ruling rank. Roughly stated. It was f >un?l that the fathers of first-class honor ni'-n had taken about tliree times as many h:ifh honors as the fathers of men in the lowest rank. There were, however, material !>' ferences in the percentage figures for th * different generations studied. Tin* investigators believe themselv<-s I justified in holding that physical and j psychical characters are in general inlier- J ited in mar# in about the same proportion j All investigators in this line come to !<* ' sum.' conclusion, but most of them al i " that they fully believed it b fore i! started in to work. Their results ar?- h teresting, but ttiey will not cirr> ? -nvn tlon to the outside world until disturbing factors are carefully eliminated. The ,nvestigation described, for example. a> ; ' that all Oxford men want to t ike honors equally, and that only their capacity : % ing tested. As a matter of fact there may be great differences in th. d'-siiv of ?lt! ferent classes of men at d ft relit periods. 1'ntll the variation in wants is \ . i l- <1. the test of capacity is far from perfect. Begin With the Big Smash. From the Ivlitor and Puhlinber. In the meantime, we venture to offer sori^.jr fundamental things to those who are not I contldcnt of their ability to ?\*rite a story: An event, or series of events, m^ be related in two style? viz lrom 4ne bottom uj>, or from the to] The cumulative ? i that used by the novelists. The e fis softly and crescendoes up to jinjj, th clim.ix it or near the end. The Journalistic style begins with tlio limii\, the big smash. The first (|ii. s.ion a reporter assigned to 1 sU ry should i.?: "Wa it is tlnr most I mportant single tiling hero. the thing tie jublic wants to know first of all?" When he v inils that let him write It as th hi "ititing of his story. Then he will ask wh. I he next most Important thing, anil he wflT f ? vrlte tliat second. And so on down to the *?t Important, wiiiicli lie will write iwt-* }