The herald., 1896-02-16
A KINGDOM Of GOLD GALORE
What EngIand's Conquest of
Ashantec Means
PREMPEH'S GOLDEN HORDE
Ii He Were Only Capable Man of
Finance
The Savage nonarch CouIi Be the Richest
Man on Earth-Midos Would Not
Be in 1t
PREMPEH'S GOLDEN HORDE

King Prempeh, with his 1888 wives,
his old plug hat, his state umbrella and
royal chair Of solid gold, to say moth
ing of millions of subjects and thou
sands of square miles Of land, are all
now the property of her majesty,
Queen Victoria. Ashantee has fallen
almost without struggle and vast
territory believed to be reeking with
gold, will soon be gobbled up by COM
mercial England.
The riches of the land in the Trans
vasl, which the sturdy Beers have kept
under their supervision to the aggra-
vation of the English, will. it is
thought, be discounted by the gold of
Ashantoe. If King Prempeh's country
pans out as expected, England can we'll
afford to stop her intrigues for the
domination OF the Trsnsvaal and con-
centrate her attention upon developing
the newest acquisition.
There are 100000 subjects of King
Prempeh in the Ashantee country, snd
the poorest of them wear ornaments of
the purest gold. The lowliest Ashan-
tee womau, whose wardrobe begins and
ends with a small strip of reed grass
worn about the hips, has gold bands
on her ankles, gold chains around her
neck, gold bracelets on her arms, gold
rings on her fingers and gold in her
ears. If she knew enough she could
clothe herself from head to foot in gold
and do the same with her numerous
progeny.
No one knows how much of the
precious metal there is in Asian
tee. Iron and copper also abound
there, but these have been practically
cast into the shade by the golden
glamor permeating the savage king
dom. King Koffee, the predecessor of
Prempeh, reigned in Ashantee when
Niscount Wolseley, now commander
in-chief of the British army. made his
memorable war against the savage
monarch in 1873. In Koffee's palace
were found several rudely made hogs
heads heaping full of gold dust. 1t is
hard to estimate the value of barrel
of solid gold, but it runs way into the
millions.
Prempeh inherited all of these bar
rels of gold and he has added to them.
Whenever any of his 100000 subjects
collect any gold they have to turn over
the best part of it to the king. No one
knows how much Prempeh is worth,
least of all himself. 1t would not be
rash statement to say that he may be
tie richest monarch in the world, for
all of his wealth is in gold. He may be
worth $500,000,000, and he is certainly
not worth less than S100,000.00Q.
II he were tinancier and knew how
to dispose of his holdings to CONNER
cial concerns he could probably sell
out for more than $2.000.000,OO0. He
sits on chair or stool of solid gold
which four muscular blacks can just
carry. The weight of this stool is
about 500 pounds. A pound of gold is
worth 1920 and 500 pounds means
100000 Therefore Prempeh owns the
most valuable stool in the world.
How much he will have of all this
year from now when the ravenous
hands of the English have been delving
into his treasures, it is quite easy to
conjecture. In the expressive language
OF today, it will probably be "Nit."
II the Ashantee savage, without an
atom of tutored intelligence, frankly
ignorant of the rudiments of gold min
ing. can accumulate all its treasure.
what will the English do, fortified by
science, skill and mechanical appli-
ances? Surely golden vista is opened
up, which is dazzling to contemplate.
And England won all this with
scarcely struggle. But it will be a
struggle to maintain it. To combat
the customs of people who have lived
in savage freedom for thousands of
years, and who enjoy strength and