The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-09-07

II fraud Witbif1 a fraud
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

TOHN WILD had lived for several
I'll years in Kimberley at the palmy
period when sovereigns were literally
as plentiful as shillings are to-day in
many an English town of similar popu-
latiOn. He had been engaged in a man
ageral capacity, from which he real
lied a fair income.
Thirty pounds a month was not con-
sidered an eXtravagant salary to men
of a class who in this country would
consider themselves well recompensed
at 80 shillings a week. When he
reached the fields from England he was
as honest as the average clerk, and
fully meant to remain so. But every
body lived high" in those days. The
clerk and the shop assistant ate, drank,
dressed, smoked and otherwise recre-
ated after a fashion which in these
isles would be considered the height of
folly to anyone with an income of less
than 1000 year. EXtravagant hab-
its were everywhere engendered. Men
who had previously considered bottled
ale a luxury got used to dry cham
payne at Is shillings per bottle.
The result was inevitable, and might
have been foreshadowed. Indulgence
in alcohol, except in strictest modera-
ton, almost invariably induces some
loss of self-respect, and it is not sur
prising that Johns moral principles
.degenerated during his residence on
the fields. Temptation to dishonesty
in illicit diamond dealing lurled at al
most every corner, and many erstwhile
good men, in their haste to become rich,
fell and are to-day leading the con-
Victs life, among some of the vilest on
earth. on the Cape Town breallwater.
John Wild had many burst and
committed many peccadilloes, but of
actual crime against the law he kept
aloof. Still, when he got to the end oe
his tether-that is, when fast living
had rendered him so neryeless that his
occupation was gone, he experienced
pang at the sight of persons around
him in the height of prosperity who
had neither toiled nor spun, and who
of natural ability had less than him
self.
Everything, however, impelled him
TO leave the perilous place before he
was left, like hundreds of others, COM
pletely on the rocks or Micawberizing,
and with only few pounds in his peck
ct but a trife better in health, he
found himself in London again. There
it was neither easy to reenter his
former groove nor to adapt himself to
his former surroundings.
What he was able to obtain as remun-
Grafton for his efforts seemed pittance
after the high living to which he had
got accustomed on the diamond fields.
He soon grew dreadfully disconnected,
and open to almost any opportunity
that would land him back again in the
glamour of fast life. That opportunity
soon came.
John was Just the man for whom
Syndicate" was looking. They had
learned how diamonds of the value of
scorcs-sometimes hundreds of thou
sands of pounds-were lodged in the
miserable galvanized iron office of Kim
berley diamond merchants. The latter
knew well enough themselves that their
tencments were no protection whatever
against the midnight marauder, but
they felt they could rely upon their
safes, of which each had at least one
of the best. And their confidence was
justified, for although attempts at bur
glary despite elaborate police pro-
,a1H how
cessful.
So the plan of the ''syndicate' was to
export to Kimberley a number of safes
OF approved pattern and with the GUS
tomary kind of keys. Only of the lat
ter the syndicate was to retain dupli-
cafes. These safes were to be sod to
diamond dealers, if necessary, at a
heavy discount. When these safes had
got into use and had got lodged in them
Il good stock Of the glittering gems the
offices were to be raided by two expert
,eDced craftsmen sent out with the Eek
petition" who, with the duplicate keys,
would easily make grand haul.
John was not long in tumbling to the
"'plant," and he was just the man to go
out as a salesman of the safes. The
scheme was deliberately planned, and
with six safes the expedition" of three
persons was soon en- voyage. There was
of course much delay in getting the
heavy safes from Cape Town to Kimber-
ley, a distance of 600 miles, the greater
part of which had then to be covered
by the cumbersome oX-wagon.
Once on the fields, nevertheless, John
speedily essayed business. He an
nonnced in the Advertiser and Indie