The times., 1899-10-06

boys" as the Matabeles who work in the
mines are called. did a thriving business
by swallowing the diamonds, but Williams
has put a stop 10 that by penning up these
900 natives in one great enclosure called
the compound, and il is safe TO say that
no such habitation like this is to be
found on the face of the earth. 1t Is built
In the form OF square and includes about
five acres. Along each side of the square
are built one-story corrugated iron bui d.
ings divided into rooms holding twenty
natives each. high iron fence is erectei
around the compound. ten feet from the
building, and guards armed with Martini
rifles patrol thereabout.
Even with this arrangement, however, II
was found that many diamonds were being
flched, and 1t transpired that the boys stole
them in the mines, concealed them until
they got in the compound and then pitched
them over the fence to a confederate or
the street. Williams thereupon had the en-
tire compound rooted with fine wire net
ting, and this terminated the thefts OF that
sort.
There is very little opportunity these days
for native to dispose of a gem. He is
never permitted to leave this compound
and when the end of his service is ap-
preaching he is kept for two weeks in a
special compartment absolutely naked
along with fifty or sixty others. II the
boy has concealed in his anatomy some
where a precious stone it is bound to make
its appearance in that time. A surgeon
goes over each boy every two days and
If he looks sick puts him through sort Of
third degree that generally elieits dia-
mond OF two. The company RECEIVERS about
e 40o. 600 worth of diamonds in a year from
the native employees in this way.
nfSfS ~
may not do much toward breaking the
combinations power by supplying new
diamond fields. The newspapers for five or
six years have occasionally printed the an
nouncement that fine diamond had been
found near Milwaukee, in Wisconsin.
These stories have been regarded by the
public as of no particular Importance but
not SO by the mineralogists. From all over
the world experts have come to study that
field. The way in which the stones have
turned up has been mysterious.
Diamonds are the result of certain def
mite geological processes. They are the
product of enormous heat and stupendous
pressure both brought TO bear upon car
bon at the same time and crystallizing it.
The geological formations in which this
curious process has gone on are known as
chimneys. They are really comparatively
SAioA 'chto, bhAON5A WHICH
quantities of matter have been expelled
quickly by means of some volcanic convul-
sion within the earth. Nature, in pushing
great quantity of practically molten mat
ter containing carbon through hole too
small for it, brought about those two nee
essary conditions for the production of
diamonds-heat and pressure.
But biologists, when they went TO locali-
ties where diamonds had been found in
Wisconsin, were puzzled by the fact that
no formation of the chimney kind existed
anywhere about. 1t was finally decided
that the stones must have been brought
from great distance by glacier, which
dropped them when it melted. One of the
great jewelry firms in New York sent it's
expert to Wisconsin TO study the course
of this glacier, hoping to find chimneys
at the point where it started This expert
did trace the glacier and there found a
chimney. There was only one and ii had
been worked out. Facts indicated that this
was done by a German mineralogist who
was known to have been in that locality
some years before. He had quietly worked
out the chimney, taken what stones he
found, and finding no other diamond bear
ing spots, had gone back to Germany, say
ing nothing to any one of his discovery
Tiffany & Co. alone have spent thous-
ands of dollars in studying the so-called
Milwaukee field but have abandoned the
enterprise 1t is by no means certain, how
ever, that in America will not be found dia-
mond fields of enormous richness. Geolo-
gists and mineralogists agree that nowhere
else on earth exist conditions more like
ly TO develop diamond producing forma-
tions An intelligent scientific search for
these diamond fields is continually going
on and some day we may all wake up end
find that the Klondike craze was nothing
to the diamond craze which will then EXIST