Arizona daily citizen., 1901-01-31
]. h. Farrell
Will Go to Africa.


Arizona probably none are better known
than John Farrell, formerly Of Tomb
stone. He has been favorably known in
almost every mining camp in the terri
tory, and in the west. Mr.. Farrell now
has completed arrangements which pre-
pare him for a long trip in South Africa,
where he and his party go to hunt the
renowned King Solomon mine which
has been widely written about in story
and book.
As matter Of history nobody knows
anything about the location of King Sol
omon's mines. Nobody knows just where
the successful Hebrew king took out of
the ground the massey gold for which his
riches were famous. Solomon was
business man as well as king; he mar
ried into every nation and tribe that or
fered or suggested commercial enterS
prise be had no ship subsidy bin to help
him along. and therefore he wasn't fool
enough to give up the secret Of where he
got great part OF Lis gold.
But Mr.. Farrell is going to hunt for
the lost mines. San Francisco capital,
it is said, il interested in the matter.
And today Mr.. Farrell and his party
leave San Francisco for the land of the
unsophisticated Boer and the worried
British.
There is an idea prevalent in England
that John Hay Hammond, the Califor.
mia civil engineer who was not long ago
imprisoned and finally expelled from
the domain by Com Paul, had located
the lost mines, bat Was prevented from
working them. Ii has been said that
Mr.. Hay found floats from the ledge
which. though greatly worn, were rich
in massy gold that resernbled all forms
and figures as it melted and strung itscii
along the quartz Some nuggets OF rare
vaine were found, worn smooth by long
erosion. Whether Mr. Hay found any
more than the floats, we are unable to
state, though il was at the time rnmored
that he had located the ledge from
which they came. after following il up
for many miles. With these meagrc
facts, Air. Farrell will enter Africa,
Armed only with his years Of experience
in mining in this country. and with the
barest details az to the richness Of the
African deposits, he bravely saws he ~ih
seach the continent Of Africa from one
end to the other before giving mp his
ambition.
Appropos OF the rare mineral deposits
Of Africa, Bishop Taylor, in recent ar
iiele In the Christian Aayocate, says
"up TO 1867. South Africa had been
like Cinderella. still sitting ashee, but
in that year the glass slipper Was fitted
10 her foot, the diamonds were found,
and she Became the bride Of the prince.
"Iu 1867 q hunter or trader named
o'Reiily, visiting Dutch farmer
named Van Meikert, near Hope
town, on the Orange river, became en-
amored Of . peculiar white stone which
was shown him among collection OF
pretty river pebbles at the farmhouse,
and he obtained the stone. III proved
to be diamond, and brought him
twenty-five thousand dollars Two
years later the farmer himself bought
similar stone nj Griqna Hotsentot for
goods and cattle, priced at twenty thou
sand dollars. II became famous MS the
star OF South Africa and the Counties
OF Dudley owns IL by paying one hundred
and twenty-five thousand dollars fer it. !
Far larger diamonds have since been
found, one three inches long, OF one thou
sand karats' weight. These, and soon
after many more, were found in the riv-
er gravels, and by ls70 there we're ten
Thousand men engaged in diamond
washings of the Orange, the Vaal aud
the Modder rivers, all within small
territory where these streams unite to
make the lower Orange river. But in
1890 came more astounding discovery.
About ten miles southeast from the wet
diggings' on the Vaal, on two farms, sit
uated on the high, waterless and bleak
karroo were discovered several huts,
fiues or pipes the craters Of extinct mud
volcanoes, which were full OF the hard
ened blue volcanic mud formerly ernp-
ted from them, and this blue ground
was found to Be thebed of the diamonds,
and full OF them In inestimable riches
ness, and apparently in inexhaustible
abundance. cifs,
''The news thrilled South Africa.
Miners rushed there by thousands. The
diamond city Of Kimberly grew as by
magic.
'sToday the smooth rock walls OF these
volcanic fues or craters are bored to
great depth, like huge chimneys in the
earth, where the blue hardpan has been
excavated, lifted ont, dried, rolled,
Gifted. washed, and It's diamonds ex-
tracted by the millions Of dollars worth.
Still the Kimberly craters seem mex
haustiblc.
In speaking of the gold deposits the
bishop is even more enthusiastic. He
states that the country, as matter of
necessity, has never been prospected !;
that only such portions as did not lie in
districts infested with inhospitable ma
tives have been gone over, and that as