The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-18
TALE OF A FLYING WEDGE
And How It Won Over a Million
Dollars in Gold.
BARBARIAN BROWNS PLAN
Norvy Little American Mining Engineer
Who Is Fighting to Make the Gov
eminent of the Transvaal Pay
Him His Money.


patch printed in the Standard last Sun
day morning. That dispatch said
United States Consul Smith at Vic
toria, B. c.. is reported to have for
warded to the American government a
memorial from r. E. l.. Brown, an
American mining engineer, requesting
the governments intervention to Sc
vaal government This claim is for
damages arising out of the Witfontein
case, in which Brown secured a judg-
ment for s1.S12,oO0 against Dom Paul's
government.
Where mining men congregate the
world over, r. E. l.. Brown is known,
although he is yet a young man, and
1t Is as Barbarian" rather than Rob-
ert e. Lee Brown, that he has the
greatest fame. How he got the nam
of Barbarian is another story.
1t was in 1893 that young Brown
turned imp in South Africa with John
Hays Hammond. He had gone from
the Occur d'Alenes after an exciting
residence or several years in that sec
uon. His ability as a mining engineer
was great and had been quickly recog-
nlzed by John Hays Hammond. that
brilliant Californian who has nlaved
such a prominent part in the life OF
south Africa. Cecil Rhodes, in turn
grew to Know Browns worth, not only
as a mining engineer, but as a cool
headed, daring and game man.
So 1t was that when Dom Paul and
ms law makers had decided to throw
open to lease certain of the rich gold
reefs In the tight little Dutch republic.
Brown was man of some consequence
among the cosmopolitan and feverish
population. Wealthy men were behind
Brown and had entrusted to him the
uuty OF securing the locations they
wanted
with that strange thick eadedness
that seems to be characteristic of the
government Of the Transvaal, arrange
ments for throwing open the coveted
feefs were conducted in the crudest and
most inadequate manner 1t must b "
understood that these gold lands had
long been coveted by the outlanders
ana Jealously guarded by the Boer gov
eminent as it's own. The announce
ment that the lands would be thrown
open to lease brought together, as
might have been expected an immens
throng of capitalists and Adventures
miners or means and poor prospectors
olacklegs, thieves, crooks, criminals
and all of those diverse elements tina
go to make the population of South
Africa colorful
The lands to be leased had been long
before viewed and prospected and their
fabulous wealth was known by mining
men. Thousands We're there to apply
Tor leases where hundreds could be
accommodated. The human ghouls
We're there to feast on the wealth tina
was sure to be afioat where so many
men were gathered together, all gold
mad.
The government had announced tina t
II would, on a certain day, open an
office at a certain place on the plain
where applications for lease would he
received in turn, each application to b.
on a blank form and accompanied by
large percentage of the sum Of the
lease for year. A commissioner
would receive the applications and the
money.
There was no chance for "sooners. )"
FIRST come, first served was to be the
motto. He who reached the office first
would receive the coveted lease, which
meant, in all human probability, a for
tune.
How to reach there first? That was
the problem Brown, days before the date
or opening the office had set his brain
to solve.
He was a Westerner by adoption. but
type. About him in the Transvaal he
found hundreds of the men he knew
men from Montana, from Wyoming
from Idaho. Some were there for their
country's good and some were there
solely from choice, but all We're clear
grit Theirs was the kind of Western
American manhood that followed Ted
dy Roosevelt at Los Guasimas, at Ell
Caney and at San Juan hill. OF the
same kind is the Western volunteer
whose deeds of daring and indomitable
courage in the PHILIPPINE islands are
causing the military men of the world
TO wonder.
Four hundred of these reckless. brave
and strong -willed men entered Browns
employ. Great interests were behind
the young engineer and he paid we'll
With these 400 Westerners, trained to
ride, to shoot and to fight, what could
he not have done, He intended to set
them against 5000 men of other nation
alities who would be battling to reach
the coveted door ahead of him. He felt
confident they would win.
Once upon a time Brown had been
college student, and despite his short
stature, had been football player. He
proceeded to instruct a class of 400 apt
but laughing, pupils into the mysteries
IF an old football trick.
Imagine a blistering African plain
sandy and CRASHES: the heat waves
shimmering over the surface and
scorching the faces of a huge, sweat
ing, swearing mob of 5000 angry men,
painting under the tropic sun that is
fast approaching the meridian. Away
In the distance, dimly blue and indis-
tinct through the heated atmosphere
rise the hills. Between you and them
there is nothing save sand and heat
and this huge crowd of men, swarming
and fighting about a tiny. red, CORFU
gated iron shanty, within which sits a
stolid. pipe-smoking Boer commits
sioner, and a clerk. waiting for the
hour of noon to arrive.
For - hours that solid mass of
humanity in front of the window in
the shanty has stood there. Each hour
has seen it increased, and now, as the
fateful time approaches, the mass
tries to weld itself into a still more
compact lump. Men grind and gouge
and curse. There is murder in the air.
In all the great crowd there is one idea,
one wish, one desire-to reach that
window.
Gradually Browns men, who have
affected the outer edge of the crowd.