Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1897-07-08

b'tu al dHStN duOlutI came up
that threatened the very existence
of the mine.
The sides of the great pipe in
which the diamond bearing earth
was Enclosed, while hard at first,
soon became sOftened by the at
mosphere and began to slide into
the pit. The more this earth was
dug away the more it slid in, and
soon the whole bearing surface was
covered by 1t. To deal with this a
committee was formed and all the
miners assessed to pay the expense
of cutting this ''reef," as it was
called, to an angle of sixty degrees.
This was done at a heavy cost, and
then it was found that the sliding
still continued. So it was cut to 40
degrees. Even this would not suf-
flee, and finally the committee be-
gan to cut down the slope to 80 de-
grees. The amount of work en-
tailed by this was enormous, and
the committee finally had to sus-
pend operations, after expanding
over So, 100000 in the attempt.
About the time that this state
of affairs was reachsd some of the
claims had reached depth of 300
feet or o,where blue" first began to
appear. The owners of these claims
were terrified, believing the bottom
of the mine had been reached.
Many Of them covered the bottom
again and sold their claims to peo-
pie who were ignorant of the
changed character of the soil. Be
fore long the matter leaked out
and panic occurred. Claims
dropped to nothing and in some
instances were abandoned. Then
one day some one happened to
leave some of this hard rock like
blue exposed to sun and air, and,
10 and behold, it crumbled away,
after day or two, into the same
sort of soil as the upper earth. Re
newed prosperity set in and the
mines became once more valuable
The expense of working had be-
come SO great, however, that the
claims began to be concentrated in
the hands of few holders, either
companies or individuals. Several
Of these, rich enough to do the
work, began to sink shafts far out
side the mine, in the reef, and to
run tunnels into their claims. BY
this means they avoided the sliding
of the loose reef. Before much
work was done in this way,
however, the mines all came into
the hands OF one company, the DE
Beers Diamond company, chartered
by the government of Cape Colony,
with tremendous powers of admin
istration. This company still owns
the mines, and takes from them
about $40, 100000 worth of dia-
monds each year. OF the four
mines only one is now operated,
while the whole process of mining
has been radically changed and
systematized.
All around the mine great
stockade has been erected, inclosing
not only the mine proper but the
fields where the blue is spread out
TO oXidize and compound of
quarters for the Kaiisr, who do
nc arly all the work of the mine
These katfirs are paid about S2.5o
a month and are furnished with
cornmeal for food. They engage
for three, six or nine months, and
are never allowed to leave the
stockade for an instant until their
time is up. Then they are subject
ed to the most rigid inspection to
see that they are not taking any
diamonds away with them. Every
portion of the person is So closely
searched that it is impossible that
they should have any diamonds
concealed. But the willy kallir has
one other method of Guiding the
scarcher. He sometimes swallows
fine diamond. To prevent his
escaping with it he is taken into u
peculiar little place near the gate.
Here stout leather belt is put
around his waist, aad his hands,
previously incased in stout leather
mittens. are fastened to it. He Is
kept in this detention pen several
days, until it is certain that any
diamonds he may have swallowed
are no longer in his keeping. the
leather mittens preventing his re-
concealing them.
The mine is now worked from a
great inclined shaft sunk in the
hard reef. At the proper depths IA
series of tunnels are driven into
the blue some twenty feet below
its upper level, at the bottom of
the great pit. Chambers are hOl-
lowed out, and in these the miners
work, cutting the blue away from
the roof, and trampling it under
foot. They are thus in contIn-
ually rising chamber, and always
preserve the same distance from
its roof. When only mere shell
of the roof remains it is broken
through and the loose reef on top
of it is permitted to enter and pack
on the broken blue. The latter is
then drawn off through inclined
pass pits previously constructed.
BY this method nearly all the blue
is obtained, and there is no need
for pillars and timbering to hold
up the roof. OF course, where ey-
cry cubic yard of blue averages
from So to 800 in value it is i'm
portant not to leave any more of it
unused than is absolutely necessary.
When the blue is brought To the
surface it is dumped into cars and
carried out to the fields" where it
is spread out and left for week
or longer.