When any writ of attachment shall be executed and returned, if the defendant be not summoned, the clerk of the court shall cause a notice to be published once a week for three weeks in some newspaper published within the county, or in some convenient county, and having a circulation in the county in which the suit is pending, stating the issuance of such attachment, at whose suit, against whose estate, for what sum, and in what court the same is pending and that unless the defendant appear on the first day of the next succeeding term of court and plead to said action, judgment will be entered, and the estate attached will be sold. Such publication may be made before or after the return term of court, but in cases of attachment against persons residing out of this state, the creditor, his agent or attorney, shall file with the clerk his affidavit-if the affidavit for the attachment do not contain such statement-showing the post office of the defendant, or that he has made diligent inquiry to ascertain it without success; and if the post office shall be stated, the clerk shall send by mail to such defendant, at his post office, a copy of such notice, and shall make it appear to the court that he has done so, before judgment shall be rendered on publication of notice; and for a failure of duty in this respect, the clerk may be punished as for contempt.
Miss. Code § 11-33-37