The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1900-01-09
MODERN CITY OF MIDAS.
THE INCALcULABLE WEALTH OF THE
JOHANNESBURG REGION.
The UitIanders Have Built in the Trans

The UitIanders Have Built in the Trans
wal Desert Such City Would DO
Credit tn ANY CIviIiEed':Country-w
Named After PhleEmatic Boer.
Almost in the centre of the great,
undulating, desert-like plains north
of the Vaal River on which some six
thousand sturdy Dutch farmers estab-
lished themselves after the great exc
dus, or ''treck, CT 1886, stands the
city of johannesburg.
In the midst of a wilderness, almost
trackless, devoid of trees, a huge
tableland six thousand feet above the
sea-level, on which the semitropical
sun beats down and the clouds de-
scend, belching torrents for which the
name of rain is far too feeble, rises,
like Aladdin's palace, a majestic
modern city, alive with energy, cleo
tricity and hustle. 1t is thronged
with vigorous humanity in breathless
pursuit of wealth. 1t harbors nearly
two hundred thousand persons gilmore
than ordinary activity. 1t is a, hive
of busy workers without a drone. An
oasis of intellect in a desert of dull
squatters, a mighty metropolis COM
pared with which the colonial capitals.
Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg or
the Port OF Durham, are as Pensacola
TO Chicago. Such is Johannesburg,
the one spot in the tiny South African
Republic which makes that quaint lit
tie nation of supreme importance 70
the whole world, for the possession Of
which the blood of thousands may be
split, and which has focused upon the
arid plains of the Transvaal the coyet-
Gus eyes OF powerful nations
Although this mushroom city, until
recently hundreds of miles from the
nearest railroad, was only marked Off
by stakes driven into the unbroken
veldt and dignified with the title of a
township on the Goth of September,
1886, it has to-day hundreds of sub
stantial and artistic stone and marble
buildings, many miles of well-paved
streets, palatial club-houses, magnifi-
cent mansions, a majestic stock ex-
change, five first class theatres and
opera houses, hotels with elegant ac-
commodations for thousands of guests.
stately churches, hospitals, museums.
electric street railroads, race tracks
and polo grounds, with an undue pro-
portion of gambling houses which are
wide open night and day all the year
round.
There is misrepresentation in the
minds of many that johannesburg is
merely mining camp, a rough aud
tumble collection of diggers' shanties.
a sort of semitropical Klondike. This
was so not more than ten years ago,
when all the buildings were of CORFU
gated iron which had been carted over
hundreds of miles of trackless veldt
on huge OK teams; but since the rail
road connecting Johannesburg with
Cape Town was completed, in 1898.
the town has compared favorably with
any of our fiourishing Western cities
having about the same number of in
habitants.
INCALCULABLE WEALTH.
Johannesburg is built upon 'Tom
Tiddler's Ground" Beneath it is
buried perhaps more of the precious
metal than the whole world ever saw.
From the mines within a radius of
twenty miles from johannesburg
Market Square was taken last year
more gold than the whole continent of
North America produced, more than
was won from the entire continent Of
Australia, and hundreds of times as
much as the Klondike has yielded mp
to date. The record of the Wit
watersrand reef, over which johann
nesburg is built, is already more
than forty million ounces of gold,
worth over $500, 100000 and 1t is
known that at least $1,000, 900, 600
worth remains to he extracted.
On the spot where now stands
johannesburg, in the summer of 1855
was one solitary hut, inhabited by a
Boer named Johannes BezuidenLut.
1t is from this phlegmatic and illit-
crate Dutch farmer that tue town
takes its name
4 The nearest habitation to johannes
hovel was probably ten miles away.
for the Beers are an msociable race.
aud should n neighbor crowd on them.
establishing home within mile. the
first occupant will merely gruut.
gather together his belongings, and
''treck, or move away. At this time
there was n rush ON the newly dis
covered De Kaap gold fields, and hun
dreds Of eager prospectors passed over
the Witwatersrand, or White Water
Ridge, on their way TO Barberton and
KomatI, little dreaming of it's marvel
Gus riches. Bezuidenhut sat outside
his shanty, sullenly refusing iniorma-
ton or shelter, after the manner of
the Beers, TO the swarm Cf gold.seek-
ers who Aocked by But one OF them.
an Englishman named Fred Struben.
had observed indications ON farm
called Sterkfonteiu as early as Janu.
ary, 1884, which made him linger at
"the Rand. 80
Long previous 60 this n Dutchmau.
one JansMarais, had hunted for gold
On the Witwatersrand i'm spots where
the soil resemblcd that of the Austrai-
ian diggiugs, aud upon his aunounc.
ing the presence ofthe precious metal
the Bocr Government, i'm 1854, gave
him five hundred pounds Go keep his
secret and sent him back to Holland.
They did not wantto Ice ovcrruu byau
invasion of foreigners. or "Ur-