The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-25
IN TIE DIAMOND MINES
Facts About the Precious Gems and
the Prices They Bring.
Prom DE Chicago Inter Ocean.


From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Working by electric lighs in the desert of
Africa with power furnished by coal cost
ing $50 ton. was the novel subject dis
cussed yesterday Eat the Leland by George
D. Longstreet. 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 Mining
Company.
1.-THE control Of the Rothschlds,' said
Mr.. Longstrees, lis entirely due to the over
Capitalization OF the original CON-
panies. Some Of them were capitalized as
high as s25, 900, ogp. Speculation IN dia-
monds had something to do with our fail
ure. Ny fatherSs for instance, made, and
lost half dozen times in few years a for
tune Of 100000. The result Of it all was
that the sheriff appeared, and the Roths-
childs bought in. They are now limiting
the production to the demand; diamonds
will never go down in price, and the days
OF romance Of South Africa diamond min
ing 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 $500, 00O-a neat
sum for a piece of land scarcely large
enough TO put a shanty on. | have seen
1900 men working for one company, aud In
one mine as many as 10000 naked Zulus,
by electric light within year after ii was
invented.
"In those days our chief difficulty was to
prevent the thefps of the workmep. 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 unimaginable places. These Zulus
have but one fault-they are born thieves.
They are not negroes, but the remains OF
some magnificent ancient civilization. They
are the finest ace physically aud mentally
that have ever known. Their language is
musical and has great power Of poetic ex-
preston. Some forms Of 1t are purely
Greek.
'Their origin is q mystery, but from
their legends imagine that their ancestors
knew the mines from which came the gold
for King Solomon's temple, and that the
biblical Queen IF Sheba wos their sover-
eign. All the tales Of Ride Haggard whom
! knew in South Africa, have heard often
| from the lips of the native Zulus
THE mines are four In number the Kim
| berly mine proper being but one of these
| 1t is 700 feet deep and the 10 900 men ct
| 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 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 else
where. 1t is my theory, however, that
wherever diamonds are thus found
their formation must exist some
were near. They have been found thus in
North Carolina, Montana and elsewhere In
the United States, and some day actual
diamond mines viii be worked in these
regions, IL my theory is correct. At KIM
| berly the diamonds were embedded in a
strange hard mud, which had to be blasted
with dynamite before it could he brought
up. Tons of this were then carried of to
one side and allowed to remain a year
| before the precious 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 AMI the rain to disintegrate the
mass into dust.
There is popular belief that tho Kohl
moor, or Mountain of Light in the crown
| jewels of England, is the largest diamond
known This is an error 1t has been cut
twice, and is a midget compared with a
| score OF others. | have seen stones of as
much as 460 carats, but they are not worth
as much per cent as those Of only three or
four. There is no one who would wear such
huge things, and they lave no use except
| as exhibits.
''rhe most beautiful diamond by far that
| have ever seen was the one found at Kim
berly by little American named Porter
Rhodes. paid .e5 just to look at It, The
sight was liberal education for a diamond
| expert He afterwards sold it to the
| Countess Of Dudley for s500,000. Labou-
chere gave an amused account in Truth of
his efforts TO sell it to the queen. ID was
lost once before 1t left Africa, and Rhodes
gave the Zulu who returned it a reward OF
SIS. 900
1.-THE jewellers endeavor TO convince the
public that the Brazilian diamonds are far
superior to those OF South Africa, and TO-
deed there is popular belief to that effect.
It is fallacy. II makes absolutely no diff
ference in the value of diamond where II
comes from. A diamond is pure carbon. 1t
can be nothing more nor less or it is not O
diamond. The value depends almost en-
tirely upon the geometrical accuracy with
which 1t Is cut. The fact that thousand
are found in Africa to one in Brazil can
have no influence on the value of the dia-
monds from either country, American
jewelers. TO the contrary"