Rushing Work On the Capitol.

April 4, 1911, New York Times, RUSHING WORK ON CAPITOL. Assembly Chamber to be Ready by April 17 -- Guard Against Thieves.

ALBANY, April 3. -- With nearly a dozen of the administrative departments of the State Government conducting their work under strange roofs, efforts will soon be on foot to restore the burned part of the State Capitol to a condition where it will again be fit to be occupied.

For the next week or ten days the contractors will concentrate their efforts on the Assembly chamber and the adjoining section of the third floor, which is occupied by various Assembly committees and officials. The Assembly chamber itself is more or less of a wreck.

The Senate chamber itself escaped damage from the fire, but the flames ravaged the Senate Finance Committee room and did considerable damage in the office of the President por tem. of the Senate. Repair gangs were at work to-day in this section of the Capitol as well.

State Architect Ware said this afternoon that while some of the State departments might be compelled to remain in their temporary headquarters for some weeks, he fully expected to have the legislative precincts of the Capitol ready for the lawmakers to resume their labors on April 17, the date to which the legislative adjournment was taken.

State Archivist A.J.F. Van Lear issued a statement to-night in which he declared that State Historian Victor Hugo Paltsits was without knowledge of what was actually being done when he charged the State Education Department with carelessness in not saving historical papers from the debris thrown from the windows of the burned portion of the State Capital.

State Historian Paltsits to-day recovered the appeal written by Gov. Thomas Pownall of Massachusetts to New York's Governor, asking for a contribution for the relief of the sufferers of the Boston fire of 1760. The message is partly burned, but portions of many pages are legible.

The sentries on duty at the State Capitol to-day redoubled their vigilance to prevent the theft of old coins which are scattered among the debris in the burned State Library. Some of the desk in the Senate clerks' room were broken open yesterday and rifled of their contents.

George Washington's famous sword, said to have been given to him by Frederick the Great, has been recovered. It was found undamaged under a heap of charred books.

Since the burning of the State Library, Secretary of State Lazansky has received a number of letters from persons in various sections of the country offering books for sale. A Michigan attorney says he has the "documentary history of New York" dating from 1600.