The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-05-24
RIGA A CITY OF
MERCHANT PRINCES
RUSSIAN PORT SPRINGS INTO
PROMINENCE AS RESULT OF
GERMAN CAMPAIGN.

Riga, the most ultra-Western town
| in the whole Muscovite Empire, city
of merchant princes, of bursting ware
houses and miles of crowded docking,
of vigorous Teutonic architecture and
cosmopolitan organization. with hur
rying, tense business life that finds its
counterpart in New York and Ham
burg. lies near the head of the Gulf
| of Riga, a few miles northeast OF
| Mitau, or just back of the struggling
Russo-German lines in the Baltic
provinces Riga is great CONNER
cial city. 1t stands third among Rus.
sia's seaports, and second among all
the ports upon the Baltic Sea. where
commercial cities have been growing
and building for centuries. The city
is 1863 miles southwest of Petrograd,
and is filled with the spirit of mod
ern business. 1t is main gateway
into vast Russian hunterlands, and is,
probably, the most up-to-date city to
be found from Vladivostok to Libau."
| So begins the National Geographic
| Society's description of the great Rus
sian port that has sprung into prom
| inence with the most recent German
campaign, that whose direction lies
through the Baltic provinces. The
war premier continues:
Riga is second only to Petrograd
in population and industry. German
merchants of the thirteenth century
laid the foundation of it's commercial
irenown. 1t was founded in 1901, and
many German colonists soon found
their way to the new city, attracted
ileges granted by it's founder. Riga
became a powerful, flourishing mem
Der of the Hanseatic League, the
great merchant trust of the Middle
Ages. With Hemburg, Bremen, Lue
beck, Stralsund, and scores of its fell
low-banded cities, Riga grew in
wealth and trade connections; boats
from all parts of the world ran in and
Gus of it's harbor, and it enjoyed the
proud development of a German free
city,
Near tie middle of the sixteenth
century, l.iga passed into the power
of the King of Poland. The headlOng
Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden,
brought up in his course of conquest
with a shock before it's walls in 1901,
and only after a long, hard siege, was
he able to take the city. Riga passed
in the control of the Russian in 1710,
and has since played an important
part in the development Of the mighty
northern empire.
Riga has the appearance of a Ger
man port. The older part of the
port looks like a medieval German
town, while new Riga might be Bre-
men. 1t has none of the happy-go-
lucky SlavOnic air about it, and, so,
for the tourist, it is disappointing. Be-
fore the war, German was the Ian
guage of it's business, and German
was the idiom of it's streets and
homes. Official Riga was Russian,
and, as Riga is the seat of the Cover
nor-General of the Baltic Provinces,
this official element was of much sig.
nificance
For the most part, Riga is a very
; modern city It's older buildings have
been torn down to make way for
structures more upto-date, more suit
ed to the prosperity of business
city. 1t is situated on the River
;; Duena, ten miles above the mouth OF
the Gulf of Riga, and it is bound to
| the Baltic by canals. Riga has princes
, of finance and trade, and they have
, lined many of its avenues with mod
ern villas and palaces. AS an exam
pie of the city's growth, it may be
mentioned that Riga erected more
than fifteen hundred new business
and apartment buildings during a re-
, cent year and that most of these
buildings were equipped with eleva-
; tors, open plumbing. vacuum clean.
ing, central refrigerating and steam