The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-12-01
America in the TrauSyaal.

II Inlay not De generally RnOWn tndI
the British capitalists who control the
African gold and diamond diggings
found it necessary to bring to their
aid in the perfect management of
their works the brains of American
ingenuity in the shape of American
machinery. 1t may surprise many
Pennsylvanians to know hat the
great agricultural implement manu-
factory at York, Pa, which for years
was practically owned by that ster-
ling Old-time democrat, j. 3. Farpua-
har, the longtime friend of the late
jeremiah S. Black, has or had a branch
establishment at Kimberley, South
Africa, which supplied drills for the
mines and other necessary imple-
ments. The great Chicago firm of Fra
ser & Chalmers is also represented
there. In fact, American machinery
is used almost to the exclusion of that
made in all other countries. This may
be partially owing to the fact that the
engineers in charge are nearly ali
Americans. 1t is an admitted fact that
the mining engineers of this country
stand at the head of that profession
the world over, and chief among them
was John Hayes Hammond, one of
the reform committee of Johannes
burg, who was arrested with the 9TH
er members of that organization and
taken a prisoner to Pretoria on a
charge of treason. 1t was regarding
his welfare that Senators Perkins and
White, of California, called at the
state department in January, 1896, to
request that vigorous steps should be
taken to secure roper treatment for
him at the hands of the Beers. But
already the vigilant head of that
branch of the national overnmen
then Snor6fo r- H1nny IoI ~o+ o~1x
cabled Mr.. Manyon, the United States
consular agent at johannesburg, to
see that American citizens were prop
erly protected, but had also sent q
message to Ambassador Bayard-who
was then in the and of the living-so-
Letting the good services of the Brit
1Sh secretary of state for the colonies,
as this country had no consul at eth
err Pretoria or johannesburg; a request
by the ay, which our British cousins
promptly acceded to-.
h interest taken by the California
senator's in John Hayes Hammond
more than in any OF the other Ameri-
cans who had been made prisoners,
arose from the fact that he is an old
Californian, although that description
also applies to Collins, Starr, Jenkins
and q half score more of the famous
engineers employed in the conduct Of
the South African mines. But Ham
mond is said, by members of his pro-
feSSiOn in this city, to be it's recOgniZ-
ed head without distinction of country.
He was introduced to the premier Of
Cape Colony, Cecil Rhodes, some years
ago by one of the Rothschilds, and
with the premier he travelled on a pros
pecting o all over Matabeleland
and M~ashonaland. AS a result of the
acquaintanceship thus formed and the
knowledge thus obtained of the Amer
leans ClJnpriOr Uynrk Mr. pbo1ac am
ployed him as superintendent of one
Of the greatest mines in South Africa,
at the tidy annual salary of 500, 900.
1t will readily be seen that a man
whose daily labor has such a price put
upon it is not of ordinary calibre, and
surely he who is in receipt of such a
pr1ncely income would not risk its con
t%inuance by any act of rebellion for
an idle cause. There certainly must
have been some very severe provoca-
ton that led a man of Hammond'S
standing to engage in an act or acts
which caused the charge of treason to
be brought against him and made him
a prisoner in a strange land. Ham,
mond's friends in this country were
very much alarmed regarding his safe
ty. They claimed that the Beers not
only cared nothing for Americans, out
had no particular liking for them.
British Intervention saved the Ameri-
can mining when in danger,
and in this act there was found a
salve to e the wounds caused by
the much-vsxed Venezuelan dispute.
With President Kruger, Of the Trans
wall, claimed as a former resident of
Carbon county, Pa, and with General
Joubert, who routed the British forces
at Majuba Hill n Krugersdorp, dis
covered to be a native product of Phil
adelphia, and the leading mining engi-
neer of the South African mines not
only an old-time Californian, but a
Quaker City lad as well, it certainly
does not appear that Americans are
very much in evidence in the lower
end of the Dark Continent, wher there
is trouble these days. Although Ham.
mond went to California when a youth
and was graduated from Yale college
In 1876, he was born in Philadelphia
about forty years CO.. The Beers were
evidently anxious to get rid of him
for the true Philadelphia is "hot
stuff and does not know when he i:
licked.-Megargee, in The Philadelphia
Times.
Raleigh Post: Greensboro, n. c.