The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-08-16
The Finding Of Diamond PQl.
By GEORGE GRIFFITH.


copyright. 1895. by the Authorl
It's no good, little girl I've seen it
coming for weeks and now it has
come we may as we'll look it in tie
face. 1t isn't nice, but we've got 10.
Pm frozen clean out, and I'd better
strike out a new line of some sort be-
fore l have to pay with my liberty
when can't pay any longer with my
purse. -
But do you mean to tell NE, Tom,
that such horrible injustice as that
can be possible? That just because you
haven't got as much money and can t
employ as many KaffiEs as Macadam
and that German Jew partner of his,
Grunstein, you'll not only have to lose
!, your claim, but be fined like this to
your last sovereign? I don't wonder,
upon my word, at men being driven
from honest work into I. d. B. when
there are laws like that on the fields.
Why, it's worse than I. d. b. itself.
Here they'll give man Is years on the
breakwater for just being found with
diamonds he can't account for strictly
enough to please the detectives, and yet
they'll allow one man to ruin another
and perhaps spoil all his prospects in
life just because he is richer and be-
cause he has got a grudge against him
It's shameful, that's what it is, and if
had my way and was a man Id''-
NO. you wouldn"t, little girl, or if
you did there'd only be another funeral
very soon after. There is only one law
here, and that is the law of money. Ev-
cry one here to make it, and every one,
whether he's an honest man OF a thief,
is bound to uphold everything that pro-
tects it. II you have money, you can do
as you please, but if you haven t you
might as we'll try to hold up the next
rock slip at De Beers as to try to work
against it. If 1 was to take it ont of
either Macadam or Grunstein in the
way you mean, there wouldn't be a
man in camp to put his hand out to
save me from being lynchedS the next
minute, though there isn't Kaffir or a
kopje walloper on the fields who doesn =
see the swindle
But what makes me maddest of all,
Luce, is that it isn't only Macadan s
grudge against me for hanging ON to
that stone which fell with some of my
blue into his claim. It's that greasy,
hook nosed son of thief Grunstein be-
ing spoons on you and wanting me out
of the place, so that, as he thinks, he
can have the running to himself That's
why he keeps Macadam up to it and
goes in with him, and that's why I've
hung on SO long.
"But it's no use any longer I can't
go on, and I'd better stop before I'm
ruined completely. In another week
shouldn't have even the claim to sell.
Now can get something for it, and
with that II have to clear off the fields
and try my luck over the borders. It's
my only chance. 1t looks like chuclzine
up the sponge, know, and dom like
it, especially as it means leaving you,
little girl, almost alone, but if | We're tc
hang on it would really be playing
their game for them. %
We'll, suppose you re right, Tom,
and if it can't be helped, it can't But
never mind, we're both of US young
enough yet, and you We all Africa be-
fore you. l know you'll do your best
and, Tom, you can remember this,
that however long you are doing ii
when you come back you'll find me jus,
the same as am now A bit older, Of
course, but not so very old, | hope, tina,
you'll"-
The conversation cane to al abrupt
end just here, or perhaps it might be
more correct to say that it was continu.
ed in a language which is rot translate
BILE through the cold and unsy1npathetic
medium of print
The facts which had so far formed
the basis of the conversation between
Miss Lucy Carnegie, the daughter of q
fairly we'll to do diamond broker, and
Mr.. Tom Burrows, q not Particularly
prosperous diamond miner, may be
briefly summarized rs folloTs
In the days of the open mine working
at the De Beers and Kimberley mines
there existed a law which was the cause
of much heartburning and no little in
justice among miners. A digger was
compelled under penalty of progressiv,
fines, which either amounted to or &C
tually eliminated in confscation of his
claim, to keep pace in removing his
blue with his next door neighbor t.
such an extent as to preclude his GROUND
falling into his neighbor's claim. Sucl
regulation was really a necessity, blu,
at the same time it is obvious that il
might be made an instrument of botl
tyranny and dishonesty by fortunate
and wealthy diggers to freeze out thei,
less prosperous neighbors by driving
them either to abandonment of theil
claim or to sell at an absurdly low
price.
This is what had happened to Ton
Burrows. Fis next ncighbors, Macad
am and GruYpsstein, We're both richer
men than himself, and they owned
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