The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-06-16
BARNEY BARNATo,s DEATH.
How the News Was Received in London
 His Notable Career.

 How the News Was Received in London
 His Notable Career. London, June 15.--The suicide of Bar ney Barnato, the South African dia- nond and gold-mine operator, caused a sensation in financial circles here. His office was besieged this morning by hundreds of eager inquirers before his firm had recieved confirmation of the news. Throgmorton street was hiled with excited crowds of brokers discuss ing the news. His self-destruction IS generally supposed to have been the outcome of his recent Illness at the cape. Private rumors on the stock eX- change about this indicated that he was suffering from brain trouble.
 The Pail Mall Gazette this afternoon says that Barnato has been mentally unsound for about three months, and has been under constant supervision.
 The African market, as result or the death of Barnato, was depressed at the opening to-day. Barnato Consol1- dated was $ lower Johannesburg h. vestment went down Il, Chartered company's securities fell h, De Beers Mines went down 5-16, and Rand Mines were B lower.
 Although the stock exchange was ex- cited by the news, there was no panic. The stocks of the Barnato companies were not allowed to fall much before they found buyers. The opinion Is ex- pressed that the death of the South African speculator cannot have much effect upon the market, as Barnato re- gently has paid little direct attention to business.
 Nothing definite is known of the early years of Barney Barnato. According to one story he was the son Of man named Barney Isaacs, who used TO gather rags and old iron in the White chapel district of London, and the boy turned cartwheels" in the street De- hind omnibuses to amuse the passen- gers and earn half-pennies. That his name was originally Isaacs, and that he was born of Jewish parents In Lon- don, there seems to be no doubt. An other story says that his family was of Portuguese-He Hebrew origin. All Of them agree that he drifted off to the South African mining country While still a boy with his brother Henry, both without money, and that they had to live by their wits. Barney became the hanger-on of circus, and later an acrobat and juggler, a peddler, and then the owner of little circus.
 F. is reputed to have laid the foun- dati l of his fortune in the diamond fields by a species of sharp dealing known as "kopje walloping." His busi- ness grew from dealing in single stones to dealing a mining properties. One story is that he discovered by accident that the 'blue earth" at Kimberley was the true diamond-bearing soil Ac- cording to it, 10000 men had been dig ging for diamonds at the Kimberley mines, and when they reached depth of 100 feet or more below the surface the yellow sand in which they had been working suddenly ended, and they came upon a substratum of blue earth that was almost as hard as rock. One digger went some distance into the blue earth and piled up several hundred tons of it, but the rest abandoned their claims and went away. Four months later Barney came that way, and in the crumbling blue earth left by the miner he found a thirty-carat diamond. He sold the stone, entered claims for the whole mine, and sold the claims for $10,O000O0.
 Afterwards he transferred the field of his operations to the then new gold fields of the Transvaal Here he came in opposition to Cecil Rhodes and his friends, and for time they made war on one another, but in 1888 their in- terests were combined. He represented Kimberly for two terms in the Cape Colony legislature, and was admitted to a number of clubs, but the Kimberley club expelled him for using insulting language to other members, and eight months afterwards the Rand club, the most exclusive organization of South Africa, followed suit. He then went tc London, where he spent money with the utmost lavishness in an effort to gel London clubs and society to take him up, but all his efforts were in vain unti Sir Edgar Vincent gave him attention and the great operations in Kaff1l stocks began.
 There was, of course, from the start a very handsome profit to owners of the Kaffir mines, among whom Barnatt was now conspicuous In 1892, how ever some of the South African specu, lators turned their attention to the London market. Shares of some mine: were listed" on the London stock ex change. But outsiders were wary; thf "Kaffir circus" was so far suspected o, sharp practice that 1t was formally in vestigated by the exchange committee and the financial troubles of 1893 fur ther checked any extensive movement In 1894, however, the glut of idle capita in London, and the poor outlook fo other investments, gave the mine spec uators their opportunity, and it wal then that Barnato appeared as an oper ator in London.
 During that year S25OOO, 900 in stocl of mining corporations was put fort on the market; but this told only par of the story. Barnato and a few asso ciates obtained introduction not onl. to the stock exchange clientele, but t that part of ar1stocratic London whicl was most useful for their purposes The plan consistently pursued by Bar nato was, first, to capitalize a mine a extravagant figures, outsiders provid ing for all further outlay, while wen dors' shares represented the profits o the seller. He then started the noto rious "Barnato bank" which was i