The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-16
BUTTE MEN IN AFRICA.
j. II. TAFT Brings Tidings of Montanans
I'm johannesburg.

In Johannesburg
J. e. TAFT. formerly a well-known
resident of Butte, returned yesterday
from nearly a three years sojourn in
South Africa to again take up his res
idence in Butte. Mr.. TAFT was not es-
pecially well impressed with the IA
nous gold camp of johannesburg.
where he spent most of his time, and as
II did not grow on him to any appre-
liable extent, he concluded Butte was
a good enough place, and decided to
come back.
Mr.. TAFT says johannesburg Is an i'm
mense camp. and has a vast number of
mines working, but hat times are,
nevertheless. very duh, due partly to
the dry season cutting down the water
supply, which has necessitated the
closing down of numerous mines, with
more about ready to shut down, and
partly to the troubles between mine
owners and the government. He re-
ports the discovery recently of a new
diamond field in the region, but says
there is not very great excitement over
ii.
Mr.. TAFT saw a great many Ameri-
cans in johannesburg, and among them
a number from Butte. He met ex-
County Clerk and Recorder c. Q. John
son, whose departure from Butte is
wildly remembered and mourned by
the tax layers. johnson was en-
ployed by a mercantile establishment as
a clerk when Mr.. TAFT last saw him.
about six months before he left. Mr..
TAFT did not see Dave Bricker, Who
also left Butte under a cloud, but
learned of his being in the country.
Rowland Creech, ex-deputy sheriff,
and his brother-in-law, Reeder, Mr..
TAFT said, are running a hotel at Beira,
a town on the east coast. He say
Creech acquired considerable wealth on
a contract he secured to pack supplies
with Kaffirs for a railroad being built
in the interior, but he never heard any
thing of his being the king of the mig
gers" as related in a recently pub
lished fairy tale from South Africa.
James Torcher, formerly a carpenter
in Butte, is in charge of a big cyanide
mill for one of the mining companies,
and is doing well. Harry Cullen, who
was a mill man here, is manager of a
battery in of the big mills. Hugh
Mcmillan, a brother of ex-City Clerk
Archie Mcmillan. is following his old
occupation of mill builder. and is pros
pering. William Robinson, formerly a
contractor here, is also following his
old occupation to advantage. He is
located In Rhodesia.
Mr.. TAFT says the country is no place
for a prospector, as all prospecting must
be done with diamond drills, entailing
heavy expense. Miners and skilled me-
chanics, however, do well, as they carr
a pound a day, and expenses of living
are about the same as here. The num-
Der of miners is limited, as Kafiirs do
all the hand drilling, and common labor
receiving from 81. so to 500 a month. Ex-
perienced miners are only employed to
run machine drills, one white man be-
ing in charge of a machine, with two
Kaffirs to help him.
Mr. TAFT says the cattle industry OF
the country is suffering greatly from
rinderpest, which has taken off fully
half OF the cattle of the whole country.
Mr.. TAFT left Butte three years ago
next October. During his stay in the
South African republic he was employed
in the mill of the Simmer & Jack COM
pany at johannesburg, one of the larg-
est gold mining companies in the world.
He says the people of johannesburg
take very little interest in the war, ex-
cept among the Americans. Mr.. TAFT
left johannesburg May 5. and came
direct to Butte, where he expects to re-
main.