MISSISSIPPI by G. K. Owen

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 4, 1900

MISSISSIPPI

By G. K. Owen

BILOXI.— This interesting and enterprising town is one of the most popular resorts on the Gulf Coast. It is spread over most of the peninsula on which it is situated. Along the southern coast it is cut up into small blocks by narrow streets, the population varying by several thousand at different seasons of the year. To the northward, as far as the shore of the Back Bay, the population is not so dense, although the residences are quite thickly scattered among the native magnolias and other forest trees.

A village of bathing houses, each connected with the shore by a narrow wooden bridge, stands on stilts in a line parallel with the shore, and extends several rods into the sea. But the bathing and boat-riding enterprise, although extensive, includes but a small part of the employment of this busy seaport. Several large canning factories employ many hands a part of the year, canning up the worm-, bug-, and spider-like creatures called oysters, shrimps, and crabs, which are scraped in from the slimy sea, to be sent in long train-loads to satisfy the craving scavenger appetites of the inhabitants of the land. The proprietors of these factories are radical “expansionists;” for although they diminish the sea, they are adding acres to the territory of the mighty United States Empire. The wagons, cars, and ships make such slow progress in moving the oyster shells out of the way, that the southern shore-line of our country is steadily moving onward toward the tropical regions, at least in the vicinity of these canning factories.

But, as a matter of infinitely greater interest, the message of present truth has come here, and has taken root. Elders Woodford, Horton, and Owen had been holding tent-meetings for a week or two before I came, and since then my brother and I have held meetings in three different locations in Biloxi; and since the tent was shipped to Columbus, to be used at the camp-meeting, I have held open-air meetings, and have visited from house to house. I find a large portion of the people convinced of the truth of the message, but slow to obey. A few have taken their stand for the truth, and we have two regular places of Sabbath meetings,—at Mechanics Hall, 10–12 A. M., and at Harrison’s Hall, 3–5 P. M., including Sabbath-school. We have the use of Mechanics Hall free of rent; for Harrison’s Hall we pay one dollar a month. Although the fruits of the work here are not abundant in quantity, we trust the quality will prove genuine.

G. K. OWEN.