So far, therefore, the Astor estate, immense as it is, appears to have
been an unmixed good to the city in which it is mainly invested. There
is every reason to believe that, in the hands of the next heir, it
will continue to be managed with the same prudence and economy that
mark the conduct of its present proprietor. We indulge the hope that
either the present or some future possessor may devote a portion of
his vast revenue to the building of a new order of tenement houses, on
a scale that will enable a man who earns two dollars a day to occupy
apartments fit for the residence of a family of human beings. The time
is ripe for it. May we live to see in some densely populated portion
of the city, a new and grander ASTOR HOUSE arise, that shall
demonstrate to the capitalists of every city in America that nothing
will pay better as an investment than HOUSES FOR THE PEOPLE, which
snail afford to an honest laborer rooms in a clean, orderly, and
commodious palace, at the price he now pays for a corner of a dirty
fever-breeding barrack!
[Footnote 1: Old Merchants of New York.
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