The times., 1897-06-16

donkey He was about twenty years old,
and for some time he continued b;s career
as a player in stage drama. Farnato iAus-
trated in an extraordinary way te imam
ciaI genius of his race. Up 10 the point
where his fortune began to decline lie
made money by leaps and bounds, ana IN
1895, when his good fortune was Ut It's
zenith, it was estimated that he CON
trolled interests worth in the neiShborhood
of el0O, 900 600 1t was the fashion to
cali him the richest insnfn the world. AT
that time he was virtually the king of the
London money market.
In the autumn Of 1875, when the boom in
Kaffirs, the shares of the comparatively
new gold mines of the Transvaal, South
Africa. was at the highest, every man,
woman and child IN London with money
to inves5 invested Ii in kaffirs. The
craze was the last of those financial
fevers which periodically attack conserva-
tive England, the South Sea bubble be-
ing the first. For months 1t was the con-
trolling passion in London, and 1t was
scarcely less rampant in Paris and Berlin.
The shares went TO unheard of figures and
fortunes were made in a Gay.
The center of this tremendous financial
outburst was Barney Barnato. and he was
conservatively estimated at that time rs
worth between S109,o00-00o and $780,
600 900 Among his assets was bank
originally capitalized at S12.5O0,o00
In very few months its capital stock
rose In value to S45 100000.
Itwas soon after the period of Barnato's
first appearance ia South Africa that the
Kimberley diamond mines began to be at
tractive, and the speculative genius in him
impelled him to invest the few pounds Of
capital he possessed in the sparkling gems
of the treasure field.
He was clever and pushing. Everything
he touched he made successful. In five
years he had earned enough in the retail
sale OF diamonds to purchase shares in the
mines from which his merchandise nal
come. Before another five years had
elapsed his holdings in Kimberley had be-
come very large. and when the Transvaai
gold fields were discovered he had profits
to invest IL them.
In 1886 Bamato was q definite money
power in Soarh Africa, and began to be
spoken OF as the rival Of Cecil Rhodes.
Unlike III temperament. and even mere un-
like in personal ambition, the two men
they reached the conclusion simultaneously
that their respective interests could be best
promoted by combining forces, and the De
Beers Consolidated Mines were the result,
one OF the most valuable pieces of property
OF the Kind in the world.
Although Barnato represented Kimberley
twice in the Cape legislature, he had little
time to give to politics aud little interest
in that field of activity. Cecil Rhodes used
wealth only as a means To- political control.
Barnato aspired only to such control Of men
as comes from being fabulously rich. His
recordin the Cape legislature was quite de-
void Of incident When the tremendous in
crease in his mining interests called for tile
establishment OF London branch, this took
the form OF the Bamato Bank.
From that date he spent most of his time
in London, living at first in Earl Speneer's
town residence, but moving finally into
Park. While in Africa he married and had
three children-two sons and daughter
He always had, or professed to have.
boundless faith in the future Of the Trans
yaal, and his personal popularity among all
classes OF Afrikand ders was very great.
Many interesting stories are told of this.
His only reception time, however, was the
hour of breakfast, which he always took
with his wife and thoroughbred bull
pup. He affected rather loud style Of
costume and invariably wore white six
the cartoonists not to attempt to repro