The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-01-26
BET Is 4 Millionaire.
Richest of All the Rich Men
in the World
BUT AS MEEK AS MOSES
How the South African SweIIs
Live in London.


the greatest proof OF his skill is found in
the fact that hardly man outside South
Africa has heard hi.; name.
He is practically unknown. In London
not one person ont iof hundred thousand
would recognize his photograph. Yet,
though to-day only forty-six years old,
he has accumulated a fortune beside
which the dreams of the Arabian
Nights seem trivial. He is probably the
only living biliio naire; and, though I'M
known and unseen, his power is felt all
over South Afrh;a and the far east of
Asia in thousand ways.
He holds a thousand strings in his
hands, and pulls them none the less sure
Iy because he Remains behind the scenes.
More than any other man except Rhodes
he is responsible for the present war.
The ordinary picture of a South Afri-
can millionaire is that of vulgar, loud
spoken, SNOWY, ossrentattous man, a kind
of a Johannesburg Tammany boss
Alfred Belt presents a complete contrast
to this. In simple. almost shabby clothes,
with a meek air, mild eyes and a low
spoken voice, he gives one at frat the
idea of the confidential clerk OF an old
lawyer.
1t is amusing to see how people are at
first disappointed in him. Not long ago
a military authority who came across
him in South Africa wrote home: THAT
he is a millionaire and a great fnancier
am informed on good authority and
take it for granted. Had 1 been in igno-
rance Of his entity L should have taken
him for a noneni ty, and certainly not
have given him the credit for being either
millionaire or ina meier.
For he is a most unnssuming and I'M
ostentatious man of wealth, and as kind
ly, quiet and courteous as it is possible to
be- Very ordinary and meagre in his
ideas and commonplace in his CONVERSE
ton, he is one of the last men 1 should
have picked out of a crowd as able and
capable. Belt must be either so deep or
possible to ge4 to the bottom of him, and
in the other, although it is possible to
look through, it is quite impossible to
see anything"
However, Mr. Belts meekness is de-
ceptive. AS a young man he was sent
from Johannesburg to the diamond mines
at Kimberly. He was only twenty-five,
but he had skill en- ough to see that with
proper management the mines were only
at the beginning of their life. He had a
rich father in his German home, who
backed him with abundant funds, and
young Belt began buying with marvellous
results.
He was soon joined by another man
iC in ha 1O1Ith S Of oil
Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes was backed by
the Rothschilds, Belt by his father, and
together the two succeeded in forming the
great diamond trust, which, under the
name of De Beers, now controls practi-
cally the whole output Of the most prec-
ious stones in the world.
At the De Beers mines in Kimberley
Messrs. Belt and Rhodes do things on a
gig sca'e. Nine S7ars ago they admitted
that up to that time they had taken
something like ninetons of diamonds from
their mines. The mines yield profit of
| close to $9,G0O,O0O year and pay divi-
| dend of 40 per cent.
Last year, as a sort of pourboire, Mr.,
Belt and Mr.. Rhodes mode the share
holders a present of their interest as life
/
ors they were each entitled to $4,000 a
year salary, so that this present really
| meant a gift of about S5,000,Q00 to the
! shareholders.
| Mr.. Belt has once or twice given proof
| that he is not to be attacked with i'm
! punity. AT the time of the South African
raid injury by the House of Commons,
Mr.. Labouchere had been attacking Belt
| bitterly. alleging that he had created the
raid for personal purposes and had been
making a lot of profit out of it.
Mr.. Belt quietly took his seat in the
witness chair and turned on 'Labby." In
the gentlest voice he repudiated what he
termed the ''vile attacks" and pressed
Mr.. Labouchere hard, declaring he was
in justice and in honor bound either to es-
tablish the charges or withdraw them alb
solutely and uietly. Labouchere sudden
ly found that he had urgent business
elsewhere, and the attack was never re-
sumed.
Mr.. Belts huose in Park Lane is not so
| transformations as its owner. Only three
stories high, it spreads out over what is
for the Fifth avenue of London very
great space of land. and has attached to
it a great winter garden.
When it was first opened a little over
a year ago London society was greatly
perqlexed as 10 what ITS style was.
Some declared that it was early Renais-
sance, some this, some that; but a we'll
known literary woman hit it off: 1T
is" she said, early South African"
Decorated in the most quietly expen-
I Sfy With al rrS os L
panelling. it Is the ideal Of a comforta-
Mr. Belts already noted little dinners.
are planned many of the great develop
ments thar startle the world concerned
in South African politics.
Among the Kafir kings in London
there is, perhaps. no more striking figure
than the great Afrikander mulu-million-
are. Mr. John B. Robinson.
He lives in Dudley House. formerly the
home of Lord DudIey.and for long he has
not been persona grata 20 lis brother
South African millionaires. He vas borl
/ in South Africa and spent mis- early Gears
as a wool buyer. Thrown into constant
contact with the B cts he practjc al L.
came che OF nsm. He spoke the Dutch
tongue rs huently as English. He pass ed
his days in the aide, and could tide CT
shoot as well as the most cunning Boer.
He and his old friend Paul Krngc- spent
many happy days ;oss.lor IN the open
country.
Then came some Of the great wars
against the blacks, and Robinson took
his part with the other Afrikanders in
the Basuto campaign. Then came the dis