Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-05-18
Is This Bachelor Richer
Than John D. Rockefeller?

the shipping firm TO when young Belt
belonged, and as at that time the pros
pect in South Africa was not q certain
one, and credit orders were risky, a
crash being possible at any moment,
the firm decided TO send out a repre+
sentative to investigate and report. Mr..
Belt was % at the time, but he had es-
tablished himself so well in the good
graces of the heads of the business
that he was chosen fer the task, ana
set sail for Cape Town
Going to Africa in those days was
not such an easy thing as it is today
Not an inch of the II, 900 miles of rail-
way now in use had been laid, and the
only way of travelling in Africa was by
bullock team. In this way Mr.. Belt
~journeyed some 500 or 400 miles, from
Cape Town to Kimberley, where he
found a city of madmen. Gold seek
ers from every part Of the civilized
world were there, attracted by the
stories OF fortunes made by a stroke OF
the pick. There was no order, no sys-
TEN, no laws, no method either in bus
mess or government: competition had
brought many of the mines to the
verge of ruin; there were enormous
losses from thefts, against which there
was no remedy; Illicit diamond buy
ing was carried on on a huge scale,
and general chaos prevailed.
1t was the young Germans great OPP
portunity and he was not slow to seize
it. His years of training in the Ham
burg shipping office had not been vast
ed. He was co~ol-headed, a man of or
derby business methods. and he quick
~ realized that not all the wealth Of
the mines would save Kimberley from
ruin unless order look the place of
chaos and the industry was placed on
q proper commercial basis. Forgetting
the purpose for which he had been sent
out, Mr.. Belt set to work TO accom-,
plish this object, and 0 found him
self so Indispensable to the diamond in
dustry that he resolved 70 remain in,
the country for some years. From that
time his fortune was made, and since
then il has been growing faster thar
he can count II.
Belt the Original Diamond King"
Though the late Cecil Rhodes is in
separately associated with the history7
of South Africa, Mr.. Belt was in that
country several years before him. and
it was he who first realized the anger
Of putting too many diamonds on the
market at once. He saw that diamonds,
might easily become so cheap as to be,
profitless to mine, and he began to car,
ry out his idea of controlling the market!
by buying up scattered claims. n re-
suit was that when Mr.. Rhodes APP
peared on the scene Mr.. Belt was al
ready we'll established as a sort OF ula-
mondk king in his own domain. The adj
vent OF Mr.. Rhodes, however, was des-
tined to work a great change in the
state of affairs.
The great house Of Werner, Belt 81
Co, is the leading house In the Kimber-
ley diamond trade, n Mr.. Belt is
also associated with many other gi-
gantic concerns. One Of his firms old
9. 900. 900 acres OF the most valuable g
ricultural and mineral land in the
Transvaal, and Mr.. Belt is himself the
largest individual owner of mines and
land in the South Africa republic. He
is a director of the British South Afri-
can the United Concessions,
and the Exploration, all Of them most
valuable properties. 1t is beyond doubt
that Mr.. Belt has amassed the biggest
individual fortune ever made out or
gold and diamond mines.
There was in New York recently q
man who has been intimately ~acquaint-
ed with Alfred Belt for years. He was
Joseph Lewis, one Of the wealthiest and
most successful diamond merchants in
london.
alfred Belt has one Of the greatest
business n executive minds l ever
came in contact with" Mr.. Lewis said.
He, without exception, excels any man
who has gone into the great gold ana
diamond fields of Africa. Any one that
knows the man would have no cause 10
wonder at his tremendous success.