The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1899-11-02
which ar. wide open night and day all the


There ia a misapprebension in the mind
OF many that Johannesburg is merely
J. mining camp, a rough-srd-tumble collec
= ton Of diggers' shanties, sort OF semi
tropical Klondike. This was so not more
than ten years ago, when all the buildings
we're Of corrugated iron which bad been
:, carted over hundreds of miles of trackless
= veldt on huge ox-teams; but since the rail-
a road connecting johannesburg with Cape
o Town was completed, in 1893, the town
has compared favorahly with any of our
! flourishing western cities having about
the same Number Of inhabitants.
THE IycALcrLABLE WEALTH or TuE JoHAS-
SEsBuRG kkoioy.
johannesburg 10 built upon tom lid
dler's Ground" Beneath 1t 10 buried
. perhaps more OF the precious metal than
! the world ever saw. From the mines
: within a radius Of twenty miles from
johannesburg Market Square was taken
last year more gold than the whole CONT
nent Of North America produced, more
l. than was won from the entire continent of
Australia, and hundreds of times as much
az the Klondike has yielded up to date.
The record of the Witwatersrand reef,
t over which johannesburg 10 built, is al
ready more than forty million ounces of
gold, worth over 100000, 600, and it is
known that at least $4,0OO,0 OO, 600 worth
remains to he extracted.
On the spot where now stands johann
nesburg, in the summer of 1883 was one
solitary hut, inhabited bv a Boer named |
Johannes Bezudenhut. 1t is from this
phegmatc and illterate Dutch farmer
that the town takes its name.
The nearest habitation to Johannes
howell was probably ten miles away, for
the Beers are All unsOciable race, aud
should a neighbor crowd on them, estab-
fishing home within mile, the first oc-
cupant will @SsaIy grunt, gather together
his belongings, and ''treok, y pr move away.
At this time there was a rush on the newly
discovered DE Kaap goldfelds, and hun
dreds of eager prospectors passed over r
the Witwatersrand, or the White Water (
Ridge, on their way to Barberton and a
Komati, little dreaming of it's marvellous
riches. Bezuidenhut sat outside his
sbanty, sullen, refusing information or
shelter, after the manner Of the Beers, to ,
the swarm of gold seekers who fiocked by.
But one of them, an Englshman named
Fred Struben, had observed indications
on farm called SterkfOnten as early as
January, 1884, which made him linger at Z
"the RAM" "
Long previous TO this Dutcbman, one -
Jan Marais, had hunted for gold in the -,
Witwatersrand in spots where the soil re- p
sembled that of the Australian diggings, II
and upon his announcing the presence of
the precious metal the Boer government, j
in 1854, gave him five hundred pounds to Ii
keep his secret and sent him back to Hol- az
and. They did not want to be overrun by -
IN invasion of foreigners, or "Uitlanders," -
Is all strangers are termed. Fred Stru- ~
zen nov one of the richest men in the m
world, told the writer of the story of his DIR
discovery of the worlds richest gold field W.
II these words: er
"On the second day of my prospecting aD
n the Sterkfontein farm, to the west of az
he range, | found reef showing gold
NV" "''"!eu 0n '"e s"r'",e SIX penny gin
Fights, and at fifty feet had improved so
luch that some of il showed two ounces. q
early in April, 1854, first came across tie
,me water-worn pebbles on the very no
ghest parts OF the range, and felt sure 1o'
lat the whole country must have been at 'et
far
e to think that there must be conglOm- w,
ate beds or drifts in the neighbOrhood for
lich might carry gold, as in other parts rel
the world had been the case. 1t was KIN
It until March, 1885, that | struck beds AM
the "blanket" formation, of nature Pre-
itch hitherto had not been known in we
RIGA. ! showed these congomerale -.
DIS to several people, among them we'll
own expert, who only laughed. Ny
other and crushed fifty tons, however,
d 10! they gave eight penryweigbts to o''
: ton"
Such was the beginning Of the South
rican gold fever. Within few months IT
, Rand was over run by enthusiastic, fro,
ermined and penniless gold seekers, der
,italists from the recently discovered con
mOnd fields of Kimberly, Adventures upo
~ ENGLAND aud ,ha oo,o,;os and ali plal
sses Of men from all parts of the world
e Boer government took no action con-
ming the new gold fields until July Is, -
IS, when IL proclaimed and threw open
10 farms. III
n November, 1887, there were sixty Ira
ht mining companies with capital of ~
1000, 600. In January, 1890, there were
hundred and forty gold-mning COM
lies established there with an aggre-
e capital of $35,0O0,00O. Steadily the =
put increased Until, in May, 1892, one n
ldred thousand ounces were taken from
les. The monthly output has since /
ched nearly five times that amount, the II
put for August. 1899, being 4S2l0S w