The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-06
Set on His Feet by Diamonds When
 A SicklY Youth.

The youth of the man who achieved fame and fortune, with restoration to health. in the South African diamond fields, is described in an English maga- zine which said:
 Tt is hardly too much to say that MT Rhodes has been made by diamonds. Diamonds set him on his feet when. a sick and lonely youth, he found himself for the first time in Africa. He had left his fathers rectory at Hertfordshire to gain strength in a new climate, and his prospect was not the brightest It IS not true that he ever gained his livelihood in the streets of Kimberley, as has been as- serted, but there was certainly a time when MT. Rhodes and riches were as far asunder as the poles. That time was not for long. however. Mir. Rhodes set foot been discovered there. and it was not long before he staked all he had in a few claims. These he shared with his brother Herbert. who eventually relin- quished his share and went up north. where. after an adventurous life as a hunter. he met with a tragic death. While his elder brother was hunting elephants, Cecil Rhodes was plodding away in the remember the tall English lad sitting at a table near a quarry in Griqualand in the early seventies, sorting his diamonds and experimenting the work of his gang that the destinies of d continent were bound up with that lad and the diamonds on his table?
 Mir. Rhodes. as has been intima ted, did not go out as a diamond seeker His del icate health had so alarmed his father that he sought the advice of specialist. who told the youth that his only chance of life was to go to South Africa. He was barely 20 when he left the rectory. at Bishop Stortford where he was born July !. lS5S and he was full of the en- thusiasm of youth. While working hard for his ldvng in Natal and in Griqua- land. he managed to find time to pursue his studies. and even to come over to Oxford to spend part of each year a Ori9l College where he took his degree. It was when returning from Oxford on one of these occasions that he learned tho Thirty-nine Articles for his next exami- nation. surprising Sir Charles Warren by wrapping himself up in his pray er- book for two whole days on carriers cart. Nothing could be m ore unjust than to re- gard Mir. Rhodes as mere gold seeker. If he has sought to grow rich. he has sought riches not for his own aggrandiZe- ment so much as to enable him to carry on the work to which. rightly or wrongly he has given his life. When Gordon told him of the roomful of gold which the Chi nese Government had offered him after tne suppression of the Tai-Ping rebellion Nr. Rhodes express d surprise that he had refused it. It is no use our having biz ideas he said. if we have not got the money to carry them ont MT. Rhodes has spent hundr 'ds of thousands of pounds m the wark In which he was engaged. and has built railways. erected tclegraphs and suppressed rebellions. out of his own pocket, with as little todo as the average man makes in buying his morning paper.
 General Gordon had a great admiration for Mir. Rhodes. One day as the two were walking together in Basutoland. MT Rhodes chaffed Gordon with letting the natives take him as the big man. whereas the big man was really MT. Sauer, the Cape Secretary for Native Ar fairs, You ought to explain hat he is some body and you are nobody. said MT. Rhod, s. and at the next tndab ba the Gen oral stepped among the chiefs. and point ing to MT Sauer said: You are mak- ing q great mistake in treating me as me big man. That is tho great man of the whites. am only his servant, only hl0 dog. nothing more Mir. Rhodes was amazed that Gordon had taken It serl- ously. and when the Inda "a was over Gordon explained that he had done 1t because he thought it WIS the right thirr to do though. he added: It was hard very hard Gordon pleaded with Mir Rhodes to stay in Basutoland and work with hirl. There are very few mcE in the world to whom I would make such an offer-very few men. l can tell you. But of course. you will have your own way And again, when he set out for Khartoum on his fatal last journey. the ne rest coincidence kept Mir. Rhodes from accommodating s him. Gordon wired asking him toSgo. and on the same morning Mir. Rhodes received an offer of post in the Cape Ministry. But for that. he might have perlshcd in Khartoum with Gordon Just as. but for a cold he caught while rowing at oxford. which seriously af- tcctcd his lungs he might never have r-onc to Africa New York Tribune