The Lamar register., 1919-08-27
BROOM FACTORY BURNS
Monday Night the Big Plant of The
Lamar Broom " Brush Co.
Was Destroyed.

A little after ten O'Clock last Mon
day evening fire was discovered IN the
factory of The Lamar Broom Il Brush
Co., and the alarm was turned in. The
fire department arrived as promptly
as possible but had some trouble locat-
ing the place and when they finally
found the lire it was far beyond con
trol SO far as the interior oil the fac
tory was concerned. The fire boys
soon had two streams playing on the
fire and were able TO save the big
warehouse adjoining and keep the fire
confined in the one building. The low
er floor of the factory was filled with
hundreds of dozens OF brooms and the
basement with many tons of broom
corn, and the fire had got such hold
there that it was late Tuesday morning
before it was finally put out As fast
as it was under control one place it
was breaking out afresh in another
location. and kept the entire depart
ment busy for almost twelve hours
The office furniture and books were
taken out and few hundred brooms,
but the latter were too badly damaged
machinery was mostly located ON the
second floor and the burning of the
floor let it drop into the burning mass
on the first floor badly damaging it,
ha alxrs.e . l. ~
fore be small. The entire loss in plant,
brooms and broom corn will run close
to SIS 900 and as the rate of insur-
ance on that class of risks is very
great only about $4,000 was carried
The factory was taken over three
years ago by the present company
which is composed of a number Of La
mar business men, and had been built
tions Of our city. 1t was handling a
large part of the broom corn crop of
this section and the manufacturing
plant was turning out enough brooms
to keep four statesmen on the road. The
institution was much needed here and
was a strong drawing card for the
mercantile business Of the town. The
president of the company, C. C. Hud-
dleston, has not called the directors
and stockholders together yet, but it
is likely the factory will be remodelled
and on larger scale than before. Mr..
Hawkins, the manager. was in Baca
county at the time of the fire purchas-
ing broom corn for the factory, but is
now here and it will soon be decided
just what will be done.
There was much dissatisfaction
among citizens generally and especial
ly the stockholders of the company
that the fire whistle was not blown.
Only a very small crowd was out as
there was no noise and few saw the
blaze although it was said at times to
have been very bright. The public
may not be needed at such places but
they claim to be entitled to know about
it and turn out if they want to-es-
pecially the stockholders. The criti-
cism also applies to the telephone COM
pany for refusing entirely to furnish
any information to patrons as to the
location. The local office is not to
blame as they merely obeyed orders
from headquarters. 1t seems to be
the general policy of all public serv-
ice companies since their taste of gov
ernment control to cultivate the public
be damned policy instead of the old
policy Of showing all the favor pos
sible TO the public. 1t leaves a bad
taste in the mouth when men, who
have invested hundreds of dollars in
a concern with no return except the
good it does their town, are burned
out in the night and can't even find
out what is going on.
This factory was rapidly making
Lamar the broom corn center of this
section of the west and there should be
plenty of capital to see that it is con
tinued on an even larger scale.