The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-05-19
WHERE THE DIAMONDS
COME FROM.

Kimberly is six hundred and seven
ty miles by train from Cape Town,
and rs dreary a thirty hours journey
as one could imagine. 1t is some four
hundred feet above sea level, and, as a
consequence, is what is considered
fairly we'll situated for a city. The
streets mostly well planned, and there
there are quite number of good shops.
The houses are not like those at home:
very few Of them are more than one
story high, and all are rooted with
iron. Every house has verandah to
protect it from the heat, and it is there
that all free time is spent: Half of
the entire population is colored, and
these live in what are called locations
or villoges outside the town, where
they must remain during the night.
Any colored gentleman or lady found
away from his or her "location" after
nine o'clock p. m. is forthwith arrested
and accommodated with lodgings for
the night, and the following morning
is introduced to the magistrate and
without fail gets a month in prison
with hard labor. During the day time
these colored folk cannot use the foot
paths in the town, they must keep to
the road way and leave the side walk
free for their white brothers and sis
ters. 1t can be gathered from this Gar
rangement" that Darkie's life-no
more than policeman Sis not very
happy one. The sable portion of the
population is made up of almost every
nationality katfirs, Hottentots, Zu-
lus, Indians, with any number of Chi
nese, as wells as Moors, Arabians, and
Persians, and each one dresses (and
undresses CATER the fashion of his own
country, so that motley crowd is
constantly passing.
Should the diamonds fail Kimberly
will be aided to the list of lost cities
but experts say that the supply Of the
precious stones is incXhaustiblc So
far, at any rate, ten tons weight have
been found, representing 4 value of
eighty million pounds. 1t reads like
romance to say that De Beers Com
pany exported over two million pounds
worth last year The diggings are of
two kinds-the wet and the dry. At
the river diggings the diamonds are
found among the pebbles along the
bank. The soil is dug up and carried
in buckets to the river, and there
washed in boxes of zinc pierced with
holes. This is called a ''cradle." 1t
is rocked to and fro under a stream of
water When all the earth is washed,
the boxes are examined, and in fair
claim" about one diamond will be
found in every ten bucketstul of earth.
But the "dry diggings' are the
most important ones now, and are
several hundred feet deep. They
were formerly known as the Du Tois
Pan, Bultfontein, De Beers and Kim
berly Central. They are now ANAL
gamated into one huge company,
known as the De Beers Consolidated
Company, with share capital of
many million pounds sterling. In
working the old open mines, the troll
ley was rolled on wire cables sloping
distance Of one thousand feet, and a
perpendicular depth of five hundred
feet. The open mines are not worked
now. They are fenced in, and are tre
mondous chasms. In these old clig- !
gngs the grit was first riddled through |
4 coarse sieve, then through a finer
one, and so on. until the whole had
been carefully eXrm.nel. Now, how
ever most of the diamonds are obtain,
ed from mines more than a thousand /
feet deep. They are found in 4 serpen-
tinous breccia, known as ''blue ground
This is first pulverized ahd crumbled,
and then passed through rotary ma
Il; Z, ,,, RI, ri
washed away and the heavier remain.
There are over twelve thousand col
orcd men employed in the various
mines. with staff of nearly three
thousand white men engaged as Off
GERS, tradcsmen, engineers, &c. The
work goes on day and night, Sundays
included. without intermission. Two
thousand men arc employed below for
eight hours at time. The remainder
live on the surface, and while awaiting
their turn are enclosed III what is call
ed the compound, resembling vast
barrack square, and surrounded on the
inside with sheds, where the colored
fold sleep on the bare ground. The
cooking is carried on by each one in
front of his shed in the open air. Most
of them have on as little clothing as
one likes to imagine. They are entire
ly cut off from the outer world for