The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1901-03-23
THERE IS ONLY ONE mrssIsslppl.
W. II. Settler, IIattiesburg

W. Il. Settler, Hattiesburg
There can be no disputing the
fact that Mississippi is on the
jump and that wonderful strides
in the development of its resources
are being made every day. There
have been more charters granted
the past two years for manufac-
turing industries than perhaps
any five years before, aod railroads
are being projected everv day and
several are now in course of CON
struction. Not only homo capi-
tai, but capital from abroad is
being turned loose in the State
with a free hand and industries
are spring up on every side.
Really it seems that "confidence
has been restored" without hav-
ing to resort to debascd currency,
and somepeople are just as hap
py as if their homes did not ap-
pear on the delinquent poll tax
list. The State has more facto-
ries than it ever had, has great
er industrial movement, more
money in its treasury, more ca
pital Invested by capitalists from
Other States, more hogs, dogs and
children on the farm, more pa
tients in the asylums and more
convicts working on the convict
farms.
Why, during the short month of
February there were dfty-lhree
convicts carried to the penitentia-
ry, a larger number than has been
carried there in one month for fif-
teen years. And the poll tax de-
linquent list is simply "out of
sight," and contains the names of
some men who would like to ride
on the back of the Democratic
party into Office. Mississippi is
becoming a great State and has
within its borders some great
statesmen, among whom might be
mentioned Pcruna Bill and other
lesser lights.
And there is a State House be-
ing erected to cost million of dol
lars and not o cent is to be issued
in bonds to pay for it, though the
State spent $4,000 trying to get
a bill through the Legislature au-
thorizlng the building of it, And
our public schools are great lnsti-
tutlons and the pride of the State.
We ar. perhaps the only people
in the Union that takes suoh great
pLide in taxing ourselves to edu-
cate the negro and then lynch him.
1t is truly the home of the free
and the land of the freedman. He
could not live in any other section
of the country and carry the same
size dinner pail. He could not
even live in Indiana and be lynch
cd on such short notice and with
such little ceremony. Here we
lynch him in a more decent way
and according to law" There
he is burned, but here we hang
him between heaven and earth and
leave it with him and the Lord as
to how the remainder of the dis
tance shall be made. If he be-
comes insane over religion or a
game of craps he is sent to the
asylum where he neither works or
spins, but lies around the live
long time Willing away the hours
in brooding over the fact that the
dice were loaded,
| And our prohibition laws are
the most wonderful production of
the human mind. The author of
the prohibition law is no doubt
running bin tiger at this time.
IF not, there are dozens of them
being run in the town he lives if it
has a population of two hundred.
Our people are opposed to mono
poles of any kind and that is the
reason this prohibition law was
passed, and the reason it has new
or been repealed az it takes the
saloons out of the hands of the
few who we're able to pay the
State and municipal license and
puts it into the hands of all. The
idea of the Federal court imposing
the punishment of conining a
blind tiger dealer 10 the county
Jail for only thirty days comes
about as near taking the cake as
anything we ever run against. He
will not be out thirty minutes be-
fore he will be swinging bottles
around the circle by the gross,
making friends and then killing
them.