The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-15

London, June IA special dispatch
from Buchal island of Madeira, off the
west coast of Morocco. says that on the
arrival there today of the British
steamship Scot, which left Table Bay
(Cape TOWN. on June ?. for Southamp-
! ton, it was announced that Barney Bar
nato, the south African diamond king,
who was among the passengers, had
committed suicide by leaping over
board. His body was recovered.
WAS A CHARACTER.
The late Barney Barnato was in
many respects the most remarkable
Spectator of the century. Of all the
Englishmen who have taken part in the
DEVELOPMENT Of south Africa two only
have secured a worldwide reputation
These are Cecil Rhodes and Barnett
Isaacs, more often and less respectfully
styled Barney. Barnato was an as
sumed name, a sort of stage name, for
he began his life in south Africa by
exhibiting a trick donkey some % years
ago. He was then about 20 years Of
age.
Barney Barnato was an English jew,
and illustrated in an extraordinary way
the financial genius of his race. h j
HAND OVER FIST. a'a
Tn to the point where his fortunes
began to decline he made money by
leans and bounds, and in 1895, when his
good fortune was at its zenith, ii was
estimated that he controlled interests
worth in the neighborhood of SlOoO'-
0On II 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 1892
when the boom in Kaffirs the shares
Of the comparatively new gold mines OF
the Transvaal. South Africa, was at us
height. every man, woman and child IN
London. with money 10 invest. invested
if in Kaffirs The craze was the last OF
those financial fevers which periodically
attack conservative England. the
South Sea bubble being the first For
months it was the controlling passion
in London, and it was most rampant IN
Paris and Berlin. The shares went to
unheard of figures. and fortunes were
made in a day
BARNEY THE CENTER.
The center of this tremendous finan-
cial outburst was Barney Barnato. ana
he was conservatively estimated at tndt
time as worth between 500. 900 ana
S150 COO 600. Among his assets was
Ddnk OTlSlIldllH tS1Oitai<<~N
600. In a very few months its capital
stock rose in value to S45,O0o,o0O.
Barnato was born in London. Little
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 younger son
and at the age of 20, went to South
Africa. then a much more unknown
territory than it is now, scantlly popu-
lated bv Englishmen or persons or
English descent. The Kimberly eia-
mond 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 ana
pushing. Ey rything he touched he
made successful. In five years he had
earned enough in the retail sale of dia-
monds to purchase shares in the mines
from which his merchandise had come.
Before another five years had elapsed
his holdings at Kimberly had become
very large and when the Transvaal
gold fields were discovered he had prof
its to invest in them
In 1886 Barnato was a definite money
power in South Africa, and began to
be spoken of as a rival of Cecil Rhodes.
Unlike in temperament, the two men
started out to be opponents, but in 1883
they. reached the conclusion simultane-
ously that their respective interests
could be best promoted by combining
forces and the Debers Consolidated
mines were the result, one of the most
valuable pieces of property of land in
the world.
DIDN'T LIKE THE DONKEY STORY
Barnato repeatedly and vehemently
denied the story that he began life in
South Africa by exhibiting a trick
donkey. but there are many Afri-
f1r n n &c "a
reer in that part of the world who have
as Professionally and repeatedly affirmed
this TO be the fact. There is no truth,
however, in the story that he was ever
a clown of a juggler for a wandering
show. He used to say that the only
foundation 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 considerable
ability in this direction and his IA
vorite roles in later years were Othello
and Matthias in The Bells
NOT A POLITICIAN.
Although Barnato represented Kim
berly twice in the Cape legislature. he
had little time to give to politics, and
little interest in that field of ACTIVITY.
Cecil Rhodes used wealth only as a
means of political control; Barnato /
aspired only to such control of men
as comes from being fabulousIy 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 I
a London branch, this took the form
of the Barnato bank. From that date
he spent most of his time in London. !
living at first in Earl Spencers town |
residence. but moving finally in a more
mansion overlooking Hyde |
Park
While in Africa he married and had |
three children, two sons and a daugh- |
ter. He always had or protested to !
have. boundless faith in the future of !
the Transvaal, and his personal popu- |
arity was great among all classes of |
Africanders. In London, where he was |
constantly besieged by fiatterers, beg /
CARS and projectors of all sorts of en-
terprises, he finally became quite mac /
,essible to all except his most intimate
friends.
JAMESON RAID.
Barnato took a principal part in the
Immediately following