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Show DESPERATE 18 BURNS - BIB TOBACCO FACTORY Heavily Armed and Masked Men Commit Outrage at Princeton,, 'Ky.; Loss $170,000. PRINCETON, Ky., Dec. 1. The tobacco to-bacco stemmerics of .John Stcger and John G. Orr, the latter controlled by the Imperial Tobacco company of Nov.-York, Nov.-York, were destroyed early today by a fire, kindled by. a mob of masked men. The loss is estimated at ?170,000. The mob, which numbered about 300 men, entered Princeton between 1 and 2 o'clock, seized tho uight town marshal and disarmed him. They then went to tho factory and quickly applied the torch. " Tho masked men stood on guard, permitting per-mitting nobody to come near until tho buildings wore completely enveloped in flames and help was useless. A squad of tho mob took charge of the ' telephone tele-phone office and no word of the affair was permitted to go out. When the mob saw t.hnt the fire was beyond control they left tho town, going go-ing in the direction of HopkinsVifie, discharging revolvers and rifles as they departed. When the fire department arrived it could do nothing more than prevent, the fire from destroying buildings build-ings in the vicinity. The Stcger stcm-mory stcm-mory was located on tho south side of town on the Illinois Central railroad, and the Orr building in the northern part of the town. Tho Stcger factory is controlled by the American SnuV company and Mr. Stcger is the Princeton agent for that concern, Mr. Orr is tho representative-of representative-of the Imperial company. There was about lo0,'000 pounds of tobacco in ' each warohonso and all of it was burned. Tho mob. in addition to disarming the night policeman, took charge of the police station and tho water workn. Even had tho lire company rcspouded they would have been unable ot obtain a oupply of water. Tho work of the mob is believed to be only a furtherance further-ance of the agitation by "tho tobacco raisers against tho tobacco trust. The organization of farmers is known as the Dark Tobacco Growers' Protective association, but it is not known that nny member of that organization was in I ho mob. j |