Arizona republican., 1899-10-12
THE RICHEST OF ALL
Alfred Beif, inc B,lIlonaire of South
 Af ica.

The only man in the world ever re-
 puted to be worth S1O00, ,OGO, ,OOO-one
 thousand million dollars-is the AngIi-
 cized German. Alfred Belt whose ad-
 dress. # you care to know. is simply
 Cape Town. or Kimberley; or Jdfan-
 nesburg, South Africa, or Park Lane, | London.
 1 Mir. Belt is yet on the foolish side Of
 5O having been born in Hamburg in
 1855 and has made his fabulous for tune in the last twenty-four years.
 It is all very like a fairy book story to read of man worth a thousand millions, but it seems like a Christmas spectacle to read that what has made him SD rich is not land er railroads ar oil fields but just gold and diamonds.
 The very things that stand for riches came to him in the first instance not as result of riches but their cause:
 Alfred Belt was well educated merchants son in Hamburg. destined to go into the office, where he would learn to check and supervise accounts relating to shipments and receipts of goods to and from the ports of the earth: to inherit a comfortable income from a staid old shipping business: to
 
 proper regard for beer, and go to his fathers a respected but very little known German merchant.
 But about the time he was going in to business and giving up the duels and other delights of student days. there was a sudden commerce with the young South African town of Kimber ley which promised such development that his firm considered it wise to send a representative into this new marvel land to examine and see if the re- sources of the country justified the big credits the trades in all sorts of stores and machinery were demanding from Hamburg merchants.
 Diamonds. wealth in it's most concen- trated form, had been found in the Or ange river country in 1867. and in 1870. or possibly a year earlier, reports came of even greater diamond mines found in Kimberley, to the northwest.
 There was a rush to the country from all over South Africt. and soon from all over the world but it was not until 1875 that the slow moving. conservative Hamburg firm of which the elder Belt was a member felt the tremendous inn petus of the new trade strongly enough | to induce them to send out and invesu- 1 gate.
 That sort of work required the vigJr | and health and activity and. perhaps, | the enthusiasm of a youngster. and so | Alfred Belt, then ? years of age. was outftted with credit, with arms, with ! letters of introduction, with careful in | and a paternal blessing and | set sail for Cape Town, thence by bull ] oci team-for the railroad vas not yet | built-across Cape Colony the Free | State, Trarsvaal and so into Kin1ber ley.
 He found a city of madmea.
 Thousands had rushed in. taken up or bought land. worked the wonderful | blue or yellow clay, filled, as is pud ding with fruit. with the dull stones which could be cut and polished into the jewels for which the world would give fortunes.
 There was chaos in the laws, chaos n the manner of working mines, chaos n the trade which competition had all ready nearly ruined; there were enor- nous losses from thefts; the T. D. B.. ousiness-ilIicit diamond buying-had grown to scandalous proportions, and the young German saw state of affairs which if not remedicd would compel him to report unfavor- ably on the credit of the new districts
 He was cool headed. a man of order y business methods by inheritance md he saw that there could very cas- ly be too much of q good thing, even diamonds.
 He undertook then a work which $ attributed wholly to Cecil Rhodes. who did not go into the district lntil some years afterward, the work 'f first combining and then system ltizing the diamond mining industry.
 This is not to say that Rhodes did lot have large hand in the ultimate Jose corporation result. He did: but 'oung Belt was first in the field, frs O realize that diamonds might become 50 cheap as to be proftless to mine: irst to begin the quiet buying up of scattered and conflicting claims: first O see that there was wealth beyond he dreams of avarice only if the pro- luction of diamonds could be kept