The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-06-15

THE LATE BARNEY BARNATO.
cline he made money by leaps and
bounds, and in 1895. when his good
fortune was at its zenith, 1t was esti-
mated that he controlled interests
worth in the neighborhood Of $780,
900, 900. 1t was the fashion to call him
the richest man In the world. At that
time he was virtually the king Of the
Nondon money market.
In the autumn OF 1895, when the boom
IN "Kaffirs," the shares of the COM
parativhly new gold mines of the
Transvaal, South Africa, was at its
height, every man. woman and child
In London with money 10 invest in
vested it in "Kafiirs." The craze was
khe last of those financial Gevers which
heriodically attack conservative Eng
Hand. the South sea bubble" being tho
Mrst. For months it was the controll-
gpss sDaSSsii3in ssSiisn in London. and it was
- ~ iess rampant in Paris and Ber-
~,,4A. The shares went to unheard of
EEures, and fortunes were made in
May.
The center of this tremendous finan-
Eial outburst was Barney Barnato, and
he was conservatiVely estimated at
khat time as worth between 100000
pee and s15n,0O0,000. Among his assets
was a bank originally capitalized at
$4,000. 900, In very few months its
capital stock rose in value to $15000,-
bOO
Barnato was born in London. Little
iB known as to his early life, except
that he received his instruction from
private tutor, instead Of attending
the public schools. He was Il younger
son, and ut the age of 20 went to South
Africa, then u much more savage ter
ritory than it Is now, and sCantily
populated by EnElishmen or persons
Of English descent, to seek his fortune
The Kimberly diamond mines were
just beginning TO be productive. With
the little capital he could spare he be-
gan dealing in diamonds in small
way. He was clever and pushing.
Everything he touched he made sue
cessful, In five years he had earned
enough in the retail sale of diamonds
to purchase shares in the mines from
which his merchandise had come. Be-
fore another five years had elapsed his
holdings at Kimberly had become very
large, and when the TransVaal gold
fields were discovered he had profits
to invest In them.
In 1856 B4rnato was a definite money
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 1883 they reached the conclusion
simultaneously that their respective
interests could be best promoted by
combining sforces, and the De Beers
consolidated 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 persstentIy and repeatedly asserted
this to be the fact. There is no truth,
however, in the story that he was ever
a clown or a jusGler In a wandering
show. He frequently took part in pri-
vate theatricaA for the benefit of hos
pitfalls ana similar charities, He had
considerable ability in this direction,
and his favorte roles in later years
were Othellu and Matthias in THE
Bells"
Although Barnato represented Kim
berley twice in the Cape legislature,
Se had little time to give to politics
and little interest In that field of ac-
tivity. Cecil Rhodes uses wealth only
as a means to political control. Bar
nato asp1red only to such control of
men as comes from being fabuously
rich. His record in the Cape legisla-
ture was quite devoid of incident.
When the tremendous increase in his
mining interests called for the estab-
iishment OF q London branch. It took