The Sentinel=record. (Hot Springs, Ark.) 1900-current, 1911-03-30
100000
fire LOSS
NEW YORK ASSEMBLY HOMELESS
IN MIDST OF A BUSY SES-
SIoN'S DUTIES.
Five Million Dollar Loss and Valuable
Records Destroyed-Solons Meet
in City Hail--No
Insurance.

Albany, N. Y, March 29.--Five mill
lion dollars probably could repair the
damage done by fire in the state cap
itol today, but money cannot restore
the historical records which were the
ipride OF its state library. After ex-
amining the exterior walls with
transit, State Architect Ware de-
clared tonight that the massive pile
ever. The flames licked up the state
library, the court of claims, the as
sembly library and document rooms,
most of the offices OF the excise ue-
partment and the quarters of the sen
ate finance committee. Water and
smoke took up the work that the
flames laid down and the damage
frcm this cause extends to every part
of the building. A hundred national
guardsmen stood guard in the desert
ed corridors tonight and fifty police
men patrolled the streets outside to
protect the dismantled end of the
building.
Next to the financial loss the chief
effect of the fire will be inevitably
delayed machinery of state govern
ment. Although the senate chamber
Stands practically untouched and a
few thousand dollars can restore the
meeting place of the lower house to
its former beauty, week or longer
may intervene before progressive
business can proceed in It's accustom-
ed channels. There was talk tonight or
a recess and only the constitutional
requirement CT taking daily ballot
luntil "a United States senator -
chosen keeps the Legislators here.
Such recess was expected IL the
Isenatorship tangle can be unravelled
tomorrow.
Today both houses met in the city
hall across a short stretch Of plrk
from the capitol building, the senate
in the common council chamber and
the assembly in the county courtroom,
where the joint session also was held
and the same arrangement will be fol-
lowed tomorrow.
Although the fire started In the
northwest corner of the building It
caused the greatest havoc In the
southwest corner. Here the red tiled
pointed cupola fell. carrying down
lpart of the carved granite work that
supported it and a towering stone
chimney. The entire west wall above
the second floor was blackened and
many of the stone window frames
were ruined by the fierce heat. The
granite cornice also was ruined Con-
lservative estimates place the damage
to the exterior stonework at sz,000.-
900.
The interior masonry was damaged
to the extent of s1.500,00O, and the
same sum will represent the loss on
the contents of the state library. No
trace had yet been found tonight OF
Samuel J. Abbott. the aged night
watchman in the state library.
The state carried no insurance, as
the capitol building had been regard.
ed as absolutely fireproof. 1T was. in
fact, not the building that burned
but its contents.
| Most precious from the historians
standpoint of the fuel the flames found
in their path were the twenty-th
manuscript folio volumes of the fa-
nous official records of the governors
of the city of New Amsterdam. COW
ering a period from 1890 to 1874.
These were in course of translation BIZ
A. J. F. Van Taer and mis- tranaia-
items were burned with the origina,
Dutch documents.
In addition to these. the state los.
1.-THE correspondence % Governor Geo.
Clinton. five Thousand i1ieees IN all.
and the original letters Of sir William
Johnson and Governor N mel y
lTompkins
Among the documents sost wer,
records dealing with the history OF
South Carolina during the revolution
At the request of that state bill was
lrending in the legislature here to per-
Unit the department to tun them oysl.
to their original owner.