The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1900-10-27
TONS And TONS
OF COSTLY GEMS.
The Most Complete and Graphic Des-
criptiOn Ever Writ:,n 0. the Dia-
mond Mines Of kimberley.
By Charles Edwin Schulz.

Kimberley are loon to be again in &C.
tive operation, since the war in the
Transvaal has practically come to a
close.
These miues are the most marvellous
In the world. 1t Is estimated without
exaggeration hat they have produced
ten tons of diamonds at a value of al
most a thousand million dollars, an
amount so vast that it is practically
impossible for the average mind to
form any idea of what it really means.
Kimberley has monopoliZed a great
deal of attention during the present
South African war, and with its for
tunes one name is inSeparably con-
nected, that of Cecil Rhodes. 1t was
Rhodes. aided by one of the most as
tute ~financiers of the century. Alfred
Belt, who welded together the whole
diamond industry of the Kimberley
district in the De Beers Mining Com
pany, II formed a corporation whose
grip of Kimberley and its gems is more
absolute than any other commercial
trust in the whole world.
INCALCULABLE WEALTH.
What the actual wealth of Kimberley
may be no one can accurately guess.
Millions upon millions may be stored
away in the offices of the De Beers
Company. Nobody knows. No secret
has ever been better kept. What is
known is that the business of the De
Beers Company is to keep the price of
diamonds up. Once let the supply in
crease to any extent, and prices would
drop. Therefore, only a limited num-
Der of diamonds find their way into the
market each year-the remainder never
leave Kimberley.
Like many another great source of
wealth, the discovery of the diamond
mines of Kimberley was due to an ac-
cident. In the late sixties" a Boer,
with the distinctly Hibernian name of
O'Reilly, happened to take shelter one
night in a kaffir kraal. Some of the
native children We're playing with a
particularly bright stone, and this at
tracing O'Reilly's notice, he offered to
exchange a few beads and other trif1es
for it.
He knew little of the real value of
diamonds, but when he reached home
he was able to dispose of the gem for a
substantial sum of money. He told his
friends. too, that the Kafirs had told
him there were plenty more similar
stones in the district, and soon there
was quite an influx of prospectors to
the ~neighborhood Of the Wall river.
The surrounding country was secured
by fortune-seekers and at Hopetown.
Buifontein, small discoveries OF dia-
nno4 Kn we're I'M made, But it. was on the
stands in all IT'S nrosnerjtv tbat ,ba
greatest finds were made and The rsry
first mine to he onered rbara v,,s on ,
farm owned bv n Roer one De Eaars II
is this mine which stiiI holds swar nc
the monarch of all diamond nro!,ISsrs
and which gives its nan =, to the yast
corporation of which Alfred Reit and
Cecil Rhodes are the leading snirits
whose wealth is so fabulous and whose
power is so f~ar-reaching.
Another vast mine is the Kimberley
This and the De Beers have the honor
IF being the largest holes eyer dug bv
man in the surface of the earth. When |
one imagines that the mouth of the
Kimberley mine is nineteen acres in
area, and tina the latter has an open-
ing covering thirty V acres. while the |
depth of each is something like five
hundred feet. on. can gain some rom
ception of the magnitude of those preat
pits. Latterly. however, it has become
NECESSARY to adopt other methods of
Recurring the diamonds h that of
digging great ppen pitS such as these.
When tho necessity arose for de-
scendine 10 very graft depths. and to
uss violent explosives sDrb as d.
mite o. .,.-.: 1
~! '-as-lS the naru blue grounu
III "nich the costly gems are embed
~, was u hat the destruction
of life and property through the con-
slant collapslrg OF the walls of earth
was too serious and alarming to be
allowed to continue; so other methods
had to be devised. At s0me distance
from the great open pit shafts were
sunk, and from these ran horizontal
galleries. penetrating the blue clay.
The lowest of these galleries is 200
feet in the De Beers mine, and 1,50O
feet in the Kimberley. In inaugurating
this newer system of diamond-mining,
an nor outlay was necessary in
e~xcavating appliances. and it is esti-
mated that these cost millions of dol
lars. The wheel used for mining pur-
poses is the largest in the world, and
was cast by the De Beers Company at
Kimberley. +
AN ARMY OF LABORERS.
In the various mines a vast army of
laborers is kept in constant employ
ment when everything is in running
order. Over twelve thousand colored