Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1911-04-01


and Ruins Many Departments-Was
Hard to Subdue.
The granite walls of the New York
capitol building in Albany, majestic
and white twenty-four hours ago, aud
holding the machinery OF the state
government. are blackened from the
flames risat have been kissing them
for eight hours.
The entire western section of the
capitol is almost completely destroyed,
at a loss Of at least $7,000000, and
half of the state departments are Grip.
pied and homeless.
Electricians say the fire was started
by fused electric push button be-
coming electrified.
Franklin b. Ware, the state archi-
tect, placed the loss officially at So
10000, but nobody would be surprised
IL it ultimately went a few millions
more.
Samuel J. Abbott, aged seventy
seven years. a Civil War veteran, who
was employed as a night Waterman in
the state library is supposed to have
persisted in the flames. His body has
not been found
Guardsmen Patrol Building.
Capitol Hill Is dismal spot. A bat.
talon of national guardsmen are do
ing sentry duty around the whole
building with vigilance that would
befit a captured fort. This was the
place where the Legislators and the
crowds had fingered until / o'clock in
the morning for possible outcome
of the senatorship caucus. The whole
legislature is farther out of the CAPT.
toll than politicians could ever put 1t,
and both houses will be doing business
for some days in the municipal cham
bers of Albanys city hall. block be-
low the capitol.
As a result of one of the most dis
astrous fires that ever ate up state
property, the S26.000.000 capitol, which
took years to build. furnished such
ready fuel for the flames that the fire
burned eight hours before 1t was UNI
der control. With its origin some
where in the rear of the assembly jul
dietary committees room and assem-
bly, library on the third floor, the fire
spread with alarming rapidity, wiping
completely out of existence the entire
state eduction department, with its
state library of worldwide fame and
OF a value that cannot be estimated in
dollars, and destroyed other state Of
fees with an ease which balIled the
firemen and gave Albany one OF the
worst flights It ever got.
A Spectacular Blaze.
Granite pillars were no barriers for
the flames. They got a start in the
assembly judiciary commit I room
and claimed the state library, with It's
hundreds of thousands OF books and
pretty wooden partitions of carved
oak in one gulp. They swept over the
entire third floor OF the capitol at the
western end, while the big plate glass
windows crumbled and fell with
crashes that tumbled the residents
within ten blocks of the capitol out of
bed, and then went merrily skyward
200 feet. Within a half nour after the
fire started for fifty miles about was
transformed into daylight. The heav-
CHS MtIC WIN Nht MINI VI
reflection Albany never saw before.
The capitol building on the top OF the
hill, plain to the naked eye for al
least fifty miles. was now the great
beacon light. giving display which
was as spectacular as 1t was threat.
ening.
Thought Whole Building Doomed.
l.. Il. ~ L.
and female clerks employed in the
building and members of the legisla-
ture were out and running to Capitol
Hill from all directions The first view
gave credence to the belief felt for
hours after that the whole capitol
building was doomed to destruction.
State Office after state Office went out
of business. From the third floor the
fire ate It's way right and left and
finally made for the senate and as.
sembly chambers.
Firemen pluckily entered the burn.
ing building. which was full of smoke.
to save the senate and assembly, even
II the whole western section Of the
capitol went up In flames. The flames
reached the assembly ceiling. and II
would have gone up in a jiffy had II
not been of papier mache. The
streams on the building from the ex-
terror went up to only the third floor,
and the hardest part of the battle had
to be done by the firemen In the
building. One by one they succumbed
to the smoke. only to be quickly re-
vived In the open and hurry back to
the sickening interior again.
The departments which were put
absolutely out of business by the fire
were the state library and state library
school on the third and fourth floors
OF the capitol. the state court of
claims, the legislative bill drafting de.
partment. the state superintendent OF
weights and measures. the examina. |
tons department of the regents on the |