The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-09-05
THE AMERICAN RIVERA.

geles, Cal, and at some of the nearby |
beach resorts, about two years ago, he /
will now relate some Of what he heard |
and read about the towns of his home |
state away out on the shore OF the
Pacific Ocean.
A prominent Los Angeles paper
printed an interview in which vet
eran English sea captain, then regis
tered at the Alexandria, was quoted
as saying, in response to a question
as to his choice of place of residence
If such a selection were offered him
by all the places he had visited, that
his first choice of all the places he
had visited, for a home to spend the
remaining years of his life in, would
be Long Beach, Miss, where he had
/ found wealth and refinement to
marked degree and a gracious hospt
tality more beautifully dispensed than
at any place he ever visited. me
significance of this surprising reply Is
emphasized by it's utterance at one OF
Americas most noted pleasure resorts.
At Ocean Park and at Venice the
writer heard tourists say that Biloxi,
Beauvoir and Long Beach each pos
sessed more natural charms than any
cities they had seen anywhere west
| Nd ,-iyar Thacn
diets were rendered by disinterested
observers of extensive travel.
Gulfport, the city of conventions,
courts, industrial enterprises, civic
pride and progressive spirit, enjoys
the distinction of being in the center
of the group of seashore resorts that
adorn the Mississippi coast and the
,enviable possessor of R. r. shops
and terminals with docks and piers
from which are taken by ocean-going
vessels, ladings of timbers and lum-
Der second in magnitude of tonnage
to the port of New Orleans, the great
est lumber exporting point on the
Gulf coast.
While Gulfport is the youngest in
years of the sisterhood of Mississippi
coast towns, her builders have forged
her far ahead of other members of
the family, both in population and
commercial importance. Situated
about midway between New Orleans
and Mobile, as port, it has out
stripped the latter in lumber exporta-
ton and is a close second to the for
mer, Though both were ports of impor-
lance before the existence of their
live and loaded rival was dreamed of.
To one man, more than all the rest,
are Gulfport and Jackson indebted.
The former for the prestige which
his foresight and lavish hand has Civ.
en- her, the latter for connecting her
I by rail with the states greatest gate
way to the sea. 1t is to a number of
men of his mold that the wonderful
development of southern California is
wholly due. 1t is more men of his
calibre that the state of Mississippi
stands in greatest need Of. Only in
such men can both ability and inclina-
ton be found combined, and it is upon
such men that material progress de-
ponds for its onward march. If the
other Mississippi coast towns had
each, one such man, it would be only
a few years until the country between
! Mobile and Pass Christian would be
covered with pecan groves and orange
orchards that would enrich 1t beyond
compute, attract investors from every
state and build up a tourist traffic
such as no one would now dare at
tempt to estimate. Capital and eli
mate combined can and do control the
trend of tourist travel, even when the
routes are through chain of deserts
dismal depths. How little the effort
/ that this combination would require to
divert the volume of Pacific coast tour
list travel to the more accessible and
congenial Gulf coast country!
! By lavish expenditures Of money for
development and publicity, the far-see-
ing empire builders of southern Cali
fornia have turned the tide of trade
and travel of investors and tourists
toward their far-away lands of forced
fertility, which their spirit of progress
wrung rom the deserts dust-covered
plateaus and valleys, by force of irri-
cation under conditions that to less
intrepid souls would have proven i'm
possible to overcome
Wonderful as are the changes
wrought by their prowess and unalter-