Well here we are, late June in 1899. Six months till the Turn of the Century, and that little village once known as Vermilionville, is now Lafayette, Louisiana. And it seems Lafayette is in a relatively heated battle with New Iberia over which city will be the home for the new Southwestern Louisiana Institute. As you'll see, New Iberia wants it just as bad as Lafayette, and for obvious reasons.

 This is from the Lafayette Advertiser on today's date, 6/24 in 1899.


           INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. 


                     "IN FACT." 

         THE LOCATION.


   The Weekly Iberian published at New Iberia filled three columns of its last issue in bringing to the front the advantages of New Iberia for locating the Industrial School there, to the detriment of the other competing towns.
  Taking the words of the Weekly Iberian as unvarnished Gospel, the paradise of old must have been located near New Iberia.
  Our contemporary is exactly right in booming its town but it has been unfortunate, very much so, in the beginning of its statistical diatribe against it competitors.
  We let our readers judge for themselves.

    "An exceedingly important question for the Board of Directors to decide in connection with the Industrial School is that of location. In fact it is perhaps paramount to the matter of mere dollars and cents."

    In other words, gentlemen of the Board, if we are not able to come up with our dollars and cents, we have the very best location, the most desirable portion of the district and must be, gentlemen, paramount (vastly superior) to the matter of mere dollars and cents; at least this is what The Advertiser gathers from the above few lines of the Weekly Iberian.
   Further, reducing it to its simplest form, it means: We (Iberia) would like to have something (Industrial School) and in return will give you nothing (best location from our standpoint.)
   And the Weekly Iberian goes forth to show conclusively what constitutes the best possible location, viz: Density of population, accessibility, health and future prospect of the place in which the school is to be located. And of course, all of these are to be found in New Iberia, and in the greatest degree as the statistics from the U. S. Government" Compendum of the Eleventh Census" will prove. And the Iberian shows in a tabular statement the density of the population of each parish competing for the Industrial School adding in a charitable-type manner, that the figures have for all three parishes been computed on the basis of Iberia's increase, which is treating them very liberally.
   And the liberality of the Iberian begins to crop out in giving six wards to the parish of Lafayette, while there are eight, and in giving us a population of 20,755 souls.
   Now, notwithstanding the liberality of the Iberian we would submit that from the official books of the Parish, Lafayette is credited with 3,449 resident property tax payers and that the population of the parish is near 27,000; a difference of 6,245 in our favor, which brings us nearly to New Iberia which claims a population of 27,296. 
   As to the ACCESSIBILITY, Lafayette has the four or six passenger trains of the trunk line of the Southern Pacific and is the terminus of the Alexadria Branch, which brings her 22 miles nearer than New Iberia in a direct communication with a densely populated (unreadable words) to reach Ruston, ...there's a number of unreadable words for the rest of this paragraph, but from what I can gather the Advertiser is pointing out the difficulty in transportation that one would find if attending a college in Ruston. Their highlighted point of contention being the number of car changes that one would have to make to go to Ruston as opposed to attending a college in Lafayette. There was also mention of using the  Bayou Vermilion to reach Lafayette. Utilizing the Bayou Vermilion for basic transportation would be unheard of today, but keep in mind, this was 1899. 

 The rest of the article is quite legible and we can pick it up with the Advertiser touting Lafayette's health advantages...

 "... sides a parish Board of Health, we have an ever-alert city Board of Health; we are fanned by the salt, health giving breeze of the Gulf farther distant inland from it than New Iberia but not subject to malarial germs emanating from marshy lands. As for drainage we are nature placed on a more elevated position than our Iberian sister, as the letter hereto appended shows.

  SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY

  Maintenance Of Way Dept:
  Houston, Tex., Dec 1 1898

  Mr. Amb. Mouton
         Lafayette, La.
  Dear Sir --
  In reply to your letter of the 29th, I would advise that the elevation of the base of our rail front in front of the passenger depot at Lafayette is 40,05 above the mean level of the Gulf of Mexico whilst the same elevation in front of our New Iberia passenger depot is 20,35 making a difference of 19,7 between the elevations of New Iberia and Lafayette.
                                        Yours truly,
                                             J. S. MAHB,
                                                Engr. M. of Way
                                              
  Lafayette parish is very healthy, with no undertaker having been known to prosper here.
 The FUTURE PROSPECTS of Lafayette are indeed very bright. We have now the finest water works and electric system in operation, a cotton compress, a cotton oil mill, an ice factory, three sugar refineries, five rice mills, twenty-seven cotton gins and one of the largest brick factories in the state; two banks, one high school, numerous private schools, seven churches, twelve first class hotels, four livery stables and other things too numerous to mention.
 In the near future we will have a foundry, a soap factory, a cotton mill and other industries.
 We will add that the hammer of the carpeneter can be heard in Lafayette from the rising of the sun to its setting and that new and up-to-date residences are going up as if by magic, and that in less than ten years she will treble her present population. Can New Iberia say as much?
 Further, within a radius of eight miles of Lafayette city we have the following towns: Broussardville, (now Broussard)Royville, now Youngsville) Carencro, Scott, Duson and Breaux Bridge-in the parish of St. Martin-with a population far in excess of 15,000.
 And now, in conclusion, we have a strictly law abiding people, less crimes being commited in this parish than possibly and other parish in this State.
 Every inch of land in this parish is cultivatible and the soil being light and fertile is better adapted to the purposes of the Industrial School.
 We have the best roads.
 A company has just been organized to develop a gas mine located between Lafayette and Breaux Bridge.
 We have a grove of Magnolia trees containing one hundred and fifty acres within one mile from town, with valuable springs, the finest in the state of Louisiana, and Lafayette will offer the greatest inducements both in location and in "the matter of mere dollars and and cents," and no one will be found to exclaim
    "In Fact," etc. 
     
 Well we now know that all all of Lafayette's hyperbole was not made in vain. I wonder if USL would have been anywhere near the party college it became known as in the sixties and seventies had it been located in New Iberia.