The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-13
THE DIAMOND DTGGERs.
The Gamblers of the vaal Who Wash
 Sand for Gems.

The Gamblers of the Vaal Who Wash
 Sand for Gems.
 Away down in the extreme southwest corner of the Transvaal, ir a district which until the opening of the Klerks- dorp-F'ourteen Streams railway, lay far out of the track of the ordinary travel CT, there exists a curious little industry The diamond dggers of the Vaal are found in backwater of South African life At long intervals the outer world hears of some exceptional success, but it knows nothing of the failures. The great financial sehemers have no time for the men who poke about in the bed of a river to find few stones. But the spot is full of interest, and after the parched Rand a ramble by the broad river which has played so important part in the history of South Africa makes a welcome change.
 The camp of the diggers makes a pie turesque scene in the early morning. In the marvelously clear air and glori- ous sunshine of the beginnings of South African day, there is a certain promise of romance a tinge of adven- ture brightens the most prosaic jour ney, The breadth of the Vaal between Christiana on the Transyaal bank and Zoutpan's Drift on the Orange river shore is always beautiful, but in the cear-cut brilliance of early morning, as in the softer glow of the setting sun, there is an added attraction. The wa ters, though daily growing lower, so that the white post which marks tn height of the flood time now stands three or four feet above the level of the stream, sparkle in the sunshine; few houses nestle among the trees and away as far as the eye can see stretch es the great plain, sun-yellowed and al- most treeless, part of the expanse of apparently wasted land through which the Diamond Express now rushes fer hour after hour A silent, lonely land, striking on account of it's im,nensity.
 But here on the Vaal, at seven o'clock in the morning, all Is activity The bronzed, taciturn fersvman laho- riously rows over the heaviest loads of the day, his rough plank craft deep in the water. The river diggers who live in Christiana are crossing to the Gran gia bank; those who dwell close to their work in the tented camp which extends up stream for half a mile from the Drift, are taking a nasty breakfast before commencing on another days gamble, which may leave them with a full purse or only an increased load of anxiety. For, after all, the diamond digger of the Vaal is a gambler-and no gambler ever worked harder for his gains.
 Cross the placid water by the weir and inspect the little groups now start ing work almost in the bed of the riv- CT. There are probably three hundred or four hundred men digging in the mud and stones which lie beneath the reeds, A large proportion are white men, clad in mud-spattered clothes, with Drowned faces and arms, They have excavated huge pits in the low 1 ground left dry by the falling river; some are so close to the water that dams to keep the stream from flooding the work. During the night two or three feet of water has risen in the dig glngs, and the first task is to bale out the pits The more enterprsng- rather, those with capital-haye pur- chased California pumps, an innova- 1 tion introduced by Mr. Hamilton, the 1 biggest digger on the field, some months ago. At first failure was pre- dicted for the somewhat fiimsy looking | arrangements of wood and canvas, and throng of men came out to see their predictions verified, but 1t was a victo- " for science. The new fangled" idea l caught on, and half dozen are in use today, for they empty a pit in an | eighth of the time 1t would take a | bench of boys with buckets. Many of 1 the diggers, however, could not afford the outlay, and to-day you see the white man-who is supposed not to work in this happy land--standing three deep in water and mud, doing "Niggers work
 After ths pite have been got fairly dry, the mud and gravel are dug up and handed in buckets to the "baby. From this swinging sieve the finer gravel emerges, and this is again care | fully washed and then comes the sort ing, when the keen eye of the digget soon picks out any diamonds which have been brought up But the stones so painfully looked for are few and far between, and often the men will plod an for days and even weeks without l the slighte tsreward.
 It is hard work as the sun grows hot
 ter, and after a run of bad luck ever the natural optimism of the river dig
 ger fades, and he thinks of throwing / up his task. But luck has strange , way of coming at the last moment That middle-aSed digger over there-s