In The Principal Business Streets Of All These Towns One Sees Vast
Buildings.
They are usually called blocks, and are often so
denominated in large letters on their front, as Portland Block,
Devereux Block, Buel's Block.
Such a block may face to two, three,
or even four streets, and, as I presume, has generally been a
matter of one special speculation. It may be divided into separate
houses, or kept for a single purpose, such as that of a hotel, or
grouped into shops below, and into various sets of chambers above.
I have had occasion in various towns to mount the stairs within
these blocks, and have generally found some portion of them vacant -
have sometimes found the greater portion of them vacant. Men
build on an enormous scale, three times, ten times as much as is
wanted. The only measure of size is an increase on what men have
built before. Monroe P. Jones, the speculator, is very probably
ruined, and then begins the world again nothing daunted. But
Jones's block remains, and gives to the city in its aggregate a
certain amount of wealth. Or the block becomes at once of service
and finds tenants. In which case Jones probably sells it, and
immediately builds two others twice as big. That Monroe P. Jones
will encounter ruin is almost a matter of course; but then he is
none the worse for being ruined. It hardly makes him unhappy. He
is greedy of dollars with a terrible covetousness; but he is greedy
in order that he may speculate more widely.
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