Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-04-15
DIAMOND MINES,
FORTUNES LOST AND WON IN
SOUTH AFRICA.
The Thievish Zulu Workmanship
mond Mines May be Worked
Some Day in This Coun-
try-Big Diamonds.

~ power furnished by coal cost
ing sixty dollars ton, was the
novel subject discussed with Chicago
Inter. Ocean reporter by George D. Long
street, an English mining engineer, who
for ten years subsequent to the dis
covery of diamonds in South Africa was
superintendent of the work carried on at
Kimberly by the British Diamond Min
ing Company.
"The control of the Rothschilds,
said Mr.. Longstreet, "is entirely due to
the over capitalization of the original
companies. Some of them were capital
lied as high as s25, 100000. specula-
ton in diamonds had something to do
with our failure. My father, for in
stance, made and lost half-dozen times
in few years a fortune of $500, 900.
The result of it all was that the sheriff
appeared, and the Rothchilds bought in.
They are now limiting the production to
the demand; diamonds will never 60
down in price, and the days of romance
in South Africa diamond mining are past
forever. In those days the mines were
divided into little allotments of thirty
feet square, and each of these was sold to
a corporation for S5OO,oOO-a neat SUM
for piece of land scarcely large enough
to put shanty on. l have seen 15OO
men working for one company, aud In
one mine as many as 10, 600 naked Zulus,
whose work, oddly enough, was carried
on by electric light within a year after
it was invented.
"In those days our chief difficulty was
to prevent the thefts OF the workmen.
We had an overseer for every five men,
and yet the beggars managed to steal
large numbers of diamonds. They would
conceal them in their mouths, between
their toes and in the most unlmaginablc
places. These Zulus have but one fault
they are born thieves. They arc the
finest race physically and mentally that
have ever known. Their language is
musical and has great power OF poetic
exnression. Some forms OF it are purely
Greek.
"The cir origin is a mystery, but from
their legends imagine that their ances
tors knew the mines from which came
the gold for King Solomon's temple, and
that the Biblical Queen of Sheba was
their sovereign. ALI the tales of Rider
Hapcafd, whom knew in South Africa,
have heard often from the lips of the
native Zulus.
"The mines are four in number, the
Kimberly mine proper being but one OF
these. 1t is 700 feet deep and the 1O,-
900 men at work in it look like mere
pigmies. 1t was originally all one hill,
formed by some gigantic volcanic action
from below. Long before the chimney
was dug a few diamonds were washed
from this hill into the stream where they
were discovered. 1t is thus that they
have been found in other countries. The
true formation has never been discovered
in Brazil or elsewhere. 1t is my theory,
however, that wherever diamonds are
thus found their formation must exist
somewhere near. They have been found
thus in North Carolina, Montana and
elsewhere in the United States, and some
day actual diamond mines will be worked
in these regions, il my theory is correct.
At Kimberly the diamonds were en-
bedded in a strange hard mud, which
had to be blasted with dynamite before
it could be brought up. Tons of this
were then carried off to one side and al.
lowed to remain a year before the pre-
cious stones could be secured. We could
not use crushing machines, for they
would crush the diamonds as we'll as the
earth, so that we had to depend upon
the sun and the rain to dIsintregrate the
mass into dust.
"There is popular belief that the
Kohinoor, or Mountain Of Light, in the
crown jewels of England, is the largest
diamond known. This is an error. It
has been cut twice, and is midget COM
Jared with a score of others. have
seen stones OF as much as 460 carats, but
they are not worth as much per carat as
those of only three or four. There is no
one who would wear such hugh things,
and they have no use except as exhibits.
"Thc most beautiful diamond by far
that | have ever seen was the one found
at Kimberly by little American named
Porter Rhodes. paid f5 just TO look
at it. The sight was a liberal education
for a diamond expert. He afterwards
sold it to the Countess of Dudley for
S500,000 Laboucbero gave an amusing
account in Truth OF his efforts to sell it
to the Queen. 1t was lost once before it
left Africa, aud Rhodes gave the Zulu
who returned it reward Of s75, 900.
"The jewellers endeavor to convince
the public that the Brazilian diamonds
are far superior to those Of South Africa,
and indeed there is popular belief to
that effect. 1t is fallacy. It makes
absolutely no difference in tho value of
a diamond where it comes from. A
diamond is pure carbon. It can be
nothing more or less or it is not a dia
mond, The value depends almost en-.
tirely upon the geometrical accuracy