Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1886 — The Valuation of Philadelphia. [ARTICLE]

The Valuation of Philadelphia.

According to the city’s tax books the real estate of Philadelphia has increased in value only $7,688,439 in nin® years. This is at the rate of about one-eighth of 1 per cent, per annum. Prior to the year 1877 the yearly increase in real estate valuations ranged from $9,000,000 to $26,000,000, and the total increase in real estate assessments in the nine years preceding 1877 was over $148,000,000. At the same rate of progression, allowing for the difference in the gold standard, our real estate valuation for 1886 ought to have exceeded $740,000,000. The fact that it barely exceeded $600,000,000 should arouse inquiry. Our building operations have not been materially checked since 1877. Over 30,000 new houses have been built in the city since the centennial period, and the value of these additions to our taxable property should swell tfae tax lists at least $120,000)000. The city’s population has, it is estimated, increased 200,0 W in the nine years, and a very large proportion of the property that was included in the assessment of 1877 has in the meantime appreciated in value. In the face of these facts the return of the Board of Bevision of Taxes exhibits an increase of less than $8,000,000.— Philadelphia Record. There is no more uncomfortablelooking object than a man holding a baby. His attempts to appear unconcerned make him the personification of “Misery on a monument smiling at grief.” A modest New jersey girl will not allow her young man to kiss her in the potato field, because her father plants the twenty-four-eyed potato.