The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-09-04
FROM SOUTH AFRICA.
A Talk on That Far-of
Land.
J. W. Edmunds on the zuus Rider Hag.
gard and the Diamond
Fields.

A man who has fought Zulus, delved
into the earth for diamonds, raised
ostriches, lived alongside of Rider Hag-
gard, viewed lions and elephants roaming
on their native heaths, and tramped South
Africa generally as thoroughly as a second
Stanley-is not the sort of person one
would expect to find engaged in the real
estate business in Salt Lake city.
Such man however, HERALD re-
porter the other day encountered in Mr.. J.
w. Edmunds. partner of Mr.. Ed Senior
the Columbus of the West Side.
Mr.. Edmunds left South Africa about
three years ago to better himself in
America. a cousin of Mr. Seniors who
resides in Cape Colony. gave him letter
OF introduction to That gent eman which he
carried in his pocket over three years. One
day he found himself in Aspen, Colo, and
1t occurred TO him to run over TO Salt Lake,
lind Mr.. Senior, and see what chances the
Mormon metropolis presented for invest
ment He came, spent some weeks here,
was charmed with the place. formed a
business partnership with Mr.. Senior,
brought his family here, and is now
settled down as one Of the permanent resi-
dents of Brighton, oyer the river
Mr.. Edmunds is a cultivated gentleman,
fiuontly as any professional lecturer of the
far of land of his nativity and the many
wonders it boasts. In Cape Colony, he
says, there are about million and quar-
ter of white Inhabitants, counting both
English and Dutch. The great rush to
that country was in 1871, when the dla-
mond mines were discovered, and the boom
that followed their location discounted
anything America has ever seen in the way
n a mil or
rich as ever, but the fields are now all con-
trolled by great companies who have
formed sort OF diamond trust and limit
the production to just such quantity per
month as will keep the market steady. If
all the mines were worked to their full Ca
pacity, and all the output exported, Mr..
Edmunds says diamonds would fall to q
upon as very ordinary sort of stone.
Mr.. Edmunds is well acquainted with
the celebrated novelist Rider Haggard
He camo quietly out TO south Africa from
England and engaged in farming with a
man named Donovan. He did not make q
success of it and returned to England with
out any of his neighbors suspecting that he
had either literary gifts or aspirations.
The first they knew of it was when his
story Jess began to appear as a serial in
the London Graphic. People in south
Africa consider that his finest work, and
his "Allen Quatermain," 'Klng Solo
mons Mines" etc.. which, Mr. Edmunds
says, to people who know Zulu methods of
warfare, are in many places absurd.
Mr.. Edmunds says the ostrich industry
Is not what it was a few years ago. A
pair of birds which used to bring $500 to
9400 1900 to 81 0O0) is now worth from
e75 to e10O, and the price of feathers has
gone down in proportion. Still immense
fortunes have been made in ostrich farm
ing and many still do well who go at the
business in scientific manner
Mr.. Edmunds was one of the yeomanry
in the field at the time the young French
Prince Imperial was killed by thu Zulus.
He took part in the campaign against the
Basutos, one of the most civilized and war
like of all the African tribes. They were
armed with Winchester rifles, and it took
q siege of over five months to subjugate
them. They were not conquered without
heavy loss on the part of the whites and
Mr.. Edmunds relates the thrilling details
of how small troop of yeomanry were
one night attacked and every man
of them, but one-fifty in number
butchered. The blacks believe that
il they eat the heart of white man it will
give them q white mans courage, and the
Mortified friends of the massecred troop
found the bodies torn open and the heart of
every man missing. The one man who es-
capped was allowed TO go to tell the story of
the affair, and next day the Basuto chief,
who both wrote and spoke English. sent a
polite note to the general commanding the
yeomanry asking him to attend the auction
sale of horses and accoutrements belonging
to the slaughtered troops.
Mr.. Edmunds gives many interesting ac-
counts of the tribal customs of the negroes
in South Africa One chief he knew had
$40 wives, all acquired in exchange for
cattle. A good looking girl is worth from
thirty to forty head of cattle, and wives are
always bought by their husbands from
their fathers. On one occasion when Mr..
and party Of seven friends were
paying visit to tbs old chief mentioned
above, they were treated to most san
culinary spectacle. The chief was I'M
der the influence of gin at the
time, and ordered review of the
several thousand warriors who made up his
army. Dividing the throng into two equal
been 80 long at peace that he feared his
children were becoming babies, and he
wanted to sec il they had forgotten how to
fight. He then ordered them to charge |
upon each other, and the scene of havoc |
hat arose was indescribable. The two
sides rushed against each other with their
nurderous assegais, uttering horrld yells,
and many fell dead or wounded. Mr.. Ed |
nunds and his friends did not tarry long, |
knowing in what direction the fury of the |
blacks would next direct itself, and they |
ode away with all the speed their horses
could summon.