Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1900-06-29
IN SOUTH AFRICA.
Discovery of Gold In tho TrnnsvaaI
and the Difficulties of
Mining.

Klydn II, Steege, writing Of South
Africa in St. Nicholas, OF the dscov-
cry of gold in the Transvaal, and the
growth OF johannesburg, says:
"a German named Mauch was the
first to discover evidences of gold in
the Transvaal, but, failing to interest
his fellow-countrymen in mining in
so difficult and distant country,
nothing came of his discovery. Not
until IN Englishman, Strubcn Dynamo,
found the gold ut the Transvaul again,
was any special interest taken In the
matter. lie spread the news, and in
years time from the first opening
of the country, 10000 people had ar
rived on the spot, eager to make for
tunes. They came from every part
Of the world and included every class
of persons-miners from California
and other western states, younger
sons of well-known English families,
adventurers, and spectators, and peo-
pie who had given up respectable,
steady occupations and businesses to
join in the mad rush for gold. This
crowd of excited, eager men (some
! women and children were among
them, too) pitched tents, or nailed to-
gether few boards for protection,
or built frail, leaky shanties with
roofs of iron bent into wavy ridges
-corrugated-and began their new
life.
They were over n thousand miles
from the sea coast, and some of them,
who could not find any other method
of travelling, or could not afford an
! other, had come, after leaving the
railroad, 500 miles on foot.
There they were, when they reached
the gold fielos, in country without
| trees or vegetation other than grass,
on the high, bare vcldt Qike our prai-
rie), the great South African plateau,
which is, on the Transvaal, about
COCO feet above sea level. and to which
all material for building all convent
ences and necessities for living, and
much of their food had to be brought
in OK carts, and carried sometimes
from even the distant coast.
This was in 1856, and now. where
the first little wooden sheds and tents
We're put up, stands Johannesburg, n
city of 100000 inhabitants fine town
with good buildings, electric lights
and street railways. Stretching away
from it toward the east and west runs
! the gold region, some 40 or so miles
in length. You will hear this reef,
which was in prehistoric times the
edge of great ocean basin, called the
Rand. This term is an abbreviation
of Witwatersrand, which means white
water ridge, and the ridge, or reef,
| forms the watershed between the At
lantic and Indian oceans. There are
great many of these Rand mines,
i and the amount OF gold taken from
! them has long exceeded the supply
from any other part of the world. CAL
ifornia and Australia are left quite
| behind in their production. You
would not care for too many figures,
| but when you realize that the Trans
vaal gold has frequently reached
| value of about $5,O0o.OCO month, it
/ is quite an overwhelming thought
how rich the mines are. Enormous
| fortunes have been made from them,
and men who arrived in the Transvaal
without cent have grown rich, while,
on the other hand, numbers of peo-
pie have venturcd everything and lost
all they had. Johannesburg is city
where everybody speculates, and q
great amount of money is wasted
every day. People make money quick
ly, and spend it as fast, and one pays
for almost everything n great deal
more than it is worth.