Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
DIAMOND THIEVING.
The Devices Employed by Miners at
the South African Fields.
MAKING A DOG SWALLOW A GEM.
Diamonds Sent to England Under the Skin
of Live Fowls and
sECRErED IN SHELLS OF A SHOTGUN

Gus picture, conglomeration of national
| ity, of license and order, of law and law
lessness, that has probably never been gath
cred together in one place since the world
began. Natives, Germans, Jews, French,
Greek, English, Dutch, Beers, Africanders
"a detestable race, half Dutch, half native).
Chinese, Russian, and a few Americans, the
Jews alone representing every nation of
Europe. This motley throng jostled each
other daily upon the main street, or around
the mine, all busily employed in the race
for wealth, the search for the small glitter
ing stones that the earth was forced to yield
up to their eager eyes and untiring hands.
When the fields were first opened,
"miners' law" prevailed; a man paid 81 80
for his claim, and, stalking it out, went to
work, or employed natives to dig for him; !;
if it was an old claim that he had bought,
the same license was required to work it;
he then sold his diamonds for what he
liked, and where ne could or wished.
UNCoRRUPTED NATIVES.
The natives in those days, newly inter-
mixed with the whites, were the honest men
of the community, and rendered up every
stone they found, with very few exceptions.
So largely did this uprightness obtain among
them that native servant employed in the
house finding diamond or money in the
sleeping room of man would seek the indi-
vidual at the canteen or the mine, and hold
ing out the find would say: "Herel Baasl'
receiving as reward 30 cents for diamond
and 25 cents for gold piece or bill. With
the growth of the industry, the rivalry in
the search for diamonds became more and
more intense, and the first shoots of dis
honesty that sapped the upright nature of
this golden age of the natives may be traced
to the advent of inscriptions brokers, who
did not hesitate to waylay and importune
the native workers to steal the diamonds,
and sell the precious stones to the broker at
a nominal minimum price.
For long time this went on unsuspected
by the majority of the claim owners, and
when found out by chance
A LIVELY TIME ENsUED.
Every native was subjected to a most
rigorous scrutiny on leaving the mine, and
as they mostly worked nude. or nearly so,
the chance for hiding the gems were linn
tied, and the ears, mouth, nose and wool
completed the hiding places possible, as
glance at the feet displayed the curled up
toes which indicated the fact of something
held between them. Added to this, the
most strict surveillance was exercised over
the doings of the natives both in and out of
the mine; when in the mine each gang
worked under the inspection of a trusted
native, or of a white man who had gone
"busted" in his own claim, or had sought
the fields to try and work his way from the
bottom upward. These inspectors watched
every movement of the diggers, making the
picking up of stone without detection al
most an impossibility, and these inspectors
were, in Turn, watched by other men, and
under this double supervision the anxious
minds OF the claim owners we're in measure
satisfied and at rest.
SOME CLEVER DoDGES. -
Under this system innumerable lodges
were tried by the natives, proving success
full for time, but in the long run discov-
cred and exposed. The one great thread
which opened the claim owners eyes, being
the constant disappearance every day or so
of some native, and the news CLEANED some
weeks later from newly arrived natives that
the missing men had reached their kraal (vil-
lage) up country, and were "buying cows"
or, in other words, accumulating to them
selves the currency of the tribes, which runs
eight COWS make one woman (wife), just as
Watching his work, the native would see
fairly large stone fall from q stroke OF the
pickax, or see one stuck upon the broken
face of piece of tufaceous limestone as it
was thrown into the bucket that running on
the cables conveyed it to the surface. Get
ting an opportunity he would manipulate it
near his foot, pick it up with his toes, and
work away for an hour until he saw chance
of getting it into his hand, and transferring
it thence to his mouth or nose. Making an
excuse to get in the bucket and reach the
surface, he would mingle with the men and
hide it some way, thrusting it into dogs
throat. and then watch the dog until he had
a chance to kill it. Failing this he would
thrust 1t into a goats hair, OF even at a
pinch swallow it himself.
OTHER SMART TRICKS.
Once started upon the course of deception,
and giving himself up wholly to the corro-
sive effect of civilized habits, the native
speedily passed his teachers, and became a
postmaster in the art of duplicity. Water
pals had small holes bored in their slaves.
making kind of pocket, into which a small
diamond could be slipped by native pre-
tending to drink; slur from his earthly
hand effectually covering up the hole.
When the pail reached the surface, the
diamonds were extracted by the water car
rier, who was in collusion with the workers,
and were sold to some of the inscriptions
brokers.
Another smart trick was found out by &C.
cident. A native who was suspected Of
secretlng diamonds was watched, but with
out success; they could never catch him,
until one day a sharp-eyed inspector saw
through his method. He went into the
mine naked, like the others, and came out
with his pickaxe on his shoulder, sub
mitted to being overhauled without mur-
muir. He had taken his pickaxe, and where
the handle passed through the head he had
very artistically followed out the wood GEN.
ter, and filled the shallow orifce with moist
clay; he would work along steadily until he
saw what he faneied was a diamond on the
falling earth, and then the head of the tool
would suddenly get loose, and have to be
dumped upon the ground to tighten it, tax
ing care to do so in such manner as to |
bring the clay over the diamond and pick it |
up. He would pass the searcher without
fear of detection, as every dump would but |
increase the security of the stone.
LICENSING THE BROKERS.
At last it was found that nothing would |
stop the populations of the natives; the cat |
o'-nine-tails at the triangles rather served |
to scare the new native help away than to |
cOrIeCG LuOse WIN HCIC WOEhluS1 DIlSOn was |
no pun ishment, and the claim owners, in |
despair, turned their attention to the chan |
mel they should have struck at first.
The governing body passed a law that |
every dealer in diamonds, whether buyer
or a seller, should take out a license costing |
$500, or, in default if caught dealing in any
way, should be subjected to heavy fine |
and Imprisonment for two years, whicheen-
tence carried great weight, not so much
owing to the incurred disgrace as to the loss
of valuable time, it being the opinion of |
most men at the-ields that the bottom must
soon drop out, and that the supply of dia-
monds could not last forever. The same
law also provided that no diamonds should
leave the camp with an unlicensed person,
except by special permit, thus preventing
the selling of stones BY unlicensed diggers
or traders at the seaport town.
This came down with sledge hammer
force upon the unlicensed whites, who. still
getting the stones from the natives, could