The Saint Paul globe., 1900-01-28

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ago a military authority who came
across him in South Africa wrote home:
That he Is q millionaire and a great
financfer I am Informed on good au-
thority and take it for granted. Had
been In ignorance of his entity I should
have taken him for nonentity, and
certainly not have given him the credit
for being either millionaire or financier.
. For he is a most unassuming and
unostentatious man of wealth. and as
kindly, quiet and courteous as 1t is pos
sible to be. Very ordinary and meager
in his ideas and commonplace in his
conversation, he Is one of the last men 1
should have picked out of crowd as
able and capable. Belt must be either
so deep or shallow that, in the one case
1t is impossible to get at the bottom Of
him, and in the other. although 1t is
possible to rook through, 1t Is quite i'm
possible to see anything
However, Mr.. Belts meekness is de-
ceptive. AS a young man he was sent
from johannesburg to the diamond mines
at Kimberley. He was only twenty-five.
but he had skill enough to see that with
proper management the mines were only
at the beginning of5their life. He had a
rich father in his German home, who
backed him with abundant funds, sad
young Belt began buying with marvellous
results. SIP ~
He was soon Joined by another man.
whose name is NOW in the mouths Of all
Cecil Rhodes0f 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
practically the whole output Of the most
precious stones in the world
/ At the De Beers mines In Kimberley
Messrs Belt and Rhodes do things on a
big scale. Nine years ago they admitted
that up to that time they had taken
something like nine tons of diamonds
from their mines. The mines yield a
profit close on ss,000,00O year and pay a
dividend of 40 per cent.
Last year, as a sort of pourboire, Mr..
Belt and Mr. Rhodes made the share
holders a present of their interest as
life governors In the mine. AS life
governors they were entitled to S15o000
q year salary, so that this present really
meant a gift Of about 100000 to the
| shareholders.
| Mr.. Belt has once or twice given PROOF
! that he is not to be attacked with i'm
punity. Att the time of the South African
raid inquiry 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 lot of profit out of 1t.
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
bound in justice and in honor either to
establish the charges or to withdraw
| them abselutely and quietly. Labouchere
suddenly found that ne had urgent busi-
ness elsewhere. and the attack was Iev-
| er resumed. ss4
Mr.. Belts house In Park lane. Lon
don, is not so ynosteptatious as its own
! er. Only three stories high, 1t spreads
out over what is for the Fifth avenue
of London a very great space of land,
and has attached to it great Writer
garden. rs IN
| When 1t was; frstoopened little over
| a year ago London society was greatly
| perplexed as tofwhat its style was. Some
declared that it was early Renaissance,
some this. some that; but well-known
1 literary woman hit 1t off: ''It is,'' she
| said 'early South African"
Decorated in 1.-The most quietly expen-
sive fashion, with e.; liberal use of oak
paneling 1t is the ideal of comfortable
house. In It's dining room. during Mr..
Belts already noted little dinners, are
/ planned many Of the great developments
| that startle the world concerned i'll South
/ African politics.
park lane seems to be the Afrikander's
/ idea of heaven. Poor Barney Barrato
| lived there also. There could not be a
/ greater contrast than that between the
! quiet if splendid, homes of Belt and Rob-
;nson and Barnato's tasteless place.
Barney, too, went out to South Africa
| as a young mar; but he emerged from