The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1897-06-18
SUICIDE OF BARNATO
The Famous South Africa Dia-
mond King Ends His Life.
LEAPED OVERHEARD FROM A SHIP.
His Real Name Was Barnett Isaccs-Be-
gan His Career as Impecunious
Snowman and Acquired Vast
Fortune by Speculation.

Fortune by Speculation.
London, June ia special dis
patch from Funchal, island of Ma
deira, off the west coast of Marocco,
says that on the arrival there Of the
British steamship Scot, which left Ia
BILE bay, Cape Town, on June for
Southampton, 1t was announced that
Barney Barnato, the South Africa dia-
mond king, who was among the pas
sengers, had committed suicide by
leaping overheard. His body was re-
covered.
The Daily Telegraph, which an
nounces the death of Barney Barnato
while passenger on the Scot from
Cape Town, says, on the authority of
news agency, that he fell overheard.
The late Barney Barnato was in
many respects the most remarkable
speculator of the century. OF all the
Englishmen who have taken part in
the development of South Africa two
only have secured a worldwide repu-
tation, These have been Cecil Rhodes
and Barnett Isaacs, more often and
less respectfully styled Barney. Bar
nato was an assumed name, a sort of
South Africa by exhibiting a trick
donkey about % years ago. He was
then about 20 years of age.
Barnato was an English Jew and
illustrated in an extraordinary way the
financial genius of his race. Up to the
point where his fortunes began to de-
cline he made money by leaps and
bounds, and in 1895, when his good
fortune was at it's zenith 1t was esti-
mated that he controlled interests
worth in the neighborhood of e100,-
900, 600.
Called the Richest Man In the World.
1t was the fashion to call him the
richest man in the world At that time
he was virtually the king of the London
money market In the autumn of 1895,
when the boom in "Kafiirs." the shares
of the comparatively new gold mines OF
the Transvaal, South Africa, was at its
height, every man, woman and child
in London with money to invest invest
ed it in "KafIirs." The craze was the
last of those fina~ 9ial fevers which pc
riodically attack conservative England,
the South sea bubble" being the first.
For months it was the controlling pas
sion in London, and it was scarcely less
rampant in Paris and Berlin. The
shares went to unheard of figures, and
fortunes were made In a day.
The center of this tremendous finan-
cial outburst was Barney Barnato, and
he was conservatively estimated at that
time as worth between $100, 900 900 and
$3.50, 900. Among his assets was a
bank originally capitalized at $12, $780,
900. In very few months its capital
stock rose in value to $45, 900, 900.
Barnato was born in London. But lit
tie is known as to his early life, except
that he received his instruction from
a private tutor instead of attending the
public schools. He was a younger son,
and at the age of 20 went to South
Africa, then a much more savage terri
tory than it is now and but scantily
populated by Englishmen or persons OF
English descent, to seek his fortune
The Kimberley diamond mines were
just beginning to be productive. With
his few pounds of capital he began
dealing in diamonds in a small way He
was clever and pushing. Everything he
touched he made successful. In five
years he had earned enough In the re-
tail sale of diamonds to purchase shares
in the mines from which his merchan.
disc had come. Before another five
years had elapsed his holdings at Kim
berley had become very large, and when
the Transvaal goldf1elds were discover
ed he had profits to invest in them.
He Was a Money Power.
In 1886 Barney Barnato was a definite
power in South Africa and began to be
| spoken of as the rival of Cecil Rhodes
! Unlike in temperament and even more
unlike in personal ambition the two
men started in to be hot opponents But
in 1888 they reached the conclusion ST.
multaneously that their respective in
terests could be best promoted by COM
bining forces, and the De Beers CON
solidated mines were the result. one of
the most valuable pieces of property of
the kind in the world.
Barnato repeatedly and persistently
denied the story that he began life in
South Africa by exhibiting a trick
donkey but there are many Afrikan-
ders entirely familiar with his career
in that part of the world who have as
persistently and repeatedly asserted
this to be the fact There is no truth,
however in the story that he was ever
a clown or a juggler in a wandering
show. He used to say the only founda-
ton for this report was the fact that
when he first went to South Africa he
frequently took part In private the
atricals for the benefit of hospitals and
similar charities. He had considera-
BILE ability in this direction. and his
favorite roles in later years were
Othelo and Matthias in THE Bells"
Although Barnato represented Kim
berley twice in the Cape legislature. he
had little time to give to politics and
little interest in that field of activity.
Cecil Rhodes uses wealth only as a
means to political control BarHato as
pired only to such control Of men as
comes from being fabuously rich His
record in the Cape legislature was
quite devoid Of incident. When the
tremendous increase in his mining in
terests called for the establishment of
a London branch. this took the form of
the Barnato bank. From that date he
spent most of his time in London, llv-
Ing at first in Earl Spencer's town resi-
denee but moving finally into a mag
nificent mansion overlooking Hyde
park.
While in Africa he married and had
three children. two sons and a daugh-
ter, who survive him.
Sentence of Murder Accessory.
Amsterdam, N. Y. June 15-Peter