The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-26
HE MISSED $6o,OOO,OOO.


 Kimberley Meets Death When Miss ing Grip in a Trolley.
 William C. Ashwell, GA, the we'll known broker, who died of fall in trying to catch trolley car and miss ing it, when 2S years old narrowly es- capped being one of the richest men in the world, at least for that time, as he might have been worth $6O,OOO, 900. When the South African diamond fields were discovered, MT. Ashwell (by birth an Englishman) and a brother, Thomas, were running wool business in Cape Town.
 The diamond fever started with 8 child of certain Daniel Jacobs, a Boer, living near the site of which is now Hopetown, who picked up one of the blink kippe" (shiny stones( which were lying loose around there Some way or other Jacobs thought that this blink kippe' might be val uable, and submitted it to a diamond lcutter, who pronounced it stone of excellent quality. Later it was sold for $2,OOO. The news got to Cape Town pretty quickly, and the Ashwells were among the first to quit business and start for the interior. They trekked the whole distance with the usual bulack cart arrangement, and Fbefore they had gone far they fell in with others, and so on Until there were about 100 white men. As each had 1 five or six native servants to drive and do their digging, the whole party, the members of which traeled in touch with one another, contained about 700 persons. Under the leadership of the l Ashwells the diamond prospectors made an agreement by which what ever precious stones were gathered were turned at the end of the week and divided as nearly equally as was possible In this manner the party trekked up the valley of the Vaal River. They found a good many val uable stones, but not enough to make the proportionate gain all around reach very large figures, Then came the discovery of Kimberley.
 1 On a certain Sunday in July, 1871 when the Ashwell party had camped for rest, various members of the out fit went out for stroll. Several of l them were accompanied by Boer dam sels who lived in that neighborhood One of three couples wandered off six or eight miles from the camp and sat down to rest on the top of a slightly kopje about as large as the sit ot Bryant Park. As they sat there the girl kept poking at the dirt idly until she pried out an odd looking stone that glittered in the sun. Her escort looked at it and saw at once that il was a valuable diamond, He tried tc keep his find a secret, but in three days 1t was known all around the country side and there was big rush. MT Ashwell and his brother were among the first to arrive and stake out claims and there they stayed and worked them until Thomas fell ill and his brother had to bring him out to save his life.
 Before he departed, however. Will liam Ashwell got an option on pretty nearly all the land that constituted what is now the Kimberley mine. He could have bought it for $6,OOO,0OO. The first thing he did after he had got back to this country was to try and persuade ex-Gov. E. D. Morgan oi New York, who was distinctly related l to him, to finance a company to make the purchase. But the Governor de clined on the ground that the property was too far away. That discouraged MT. Ashwell He never went back tC
 South Africa, and allowed his options
 to lapse. Some years later Ceci l Rhodes paid about $27,OOO0OO fol Kimberley and it greatly appreciated
 after that MT. Ashwell got severa
 hundred thousand dollars for hi'
 share of it.-New York Sun.