The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-18

farm. He paid only 8500 for 1t and ne got e52 GOO. He refused to give me an option on the property at 4loo,oOo aloW- ing me three months to prospect to see whether l would take it or not. He after- ward sold another farm, which cost nm less than this, for 9100,000, so that al together he realized about eS00,OOO of your money for his lands. Nevertheless, not withstanding his wealth, he still sticks to his mud hut"
 The Premier Mine.
 asked MT. CuIlinan to tell me some thing about the Premier mine. He re- piled:
 Tt is so big that we really cannot say just how big it is. The pipe has an area of about eighty acres. It Is shaped some what like a pear, and the walls are al most vertical We have already sunk diamond drills to a depth of thousand feet, and have found diamonds in the blue all the way down. We do not know how much farther the pipe extends, but probably to great depth."
 How about the quality of your dia- monds?
 "It is good and it improves as we go down. The diamonds of the Premier mine are unusually large. The great Cullinan weighs over three thousand carats, and we have discovered num- Der of three or four hundred carats each We found one the other day which looked to me as though it had been clipped off the Cullinan."
 Twill you not soon flood the world with diamonds if you keep on at this rate?"
 'T think not. Whenever times are good the demand increases and the peo- pie who buy such things are more nu- merous every year. The Japanese are now coming into the market, and within recent years you Americans have been buying more than ever before. There is temporary slump at present on ac- count of the hard times, but that will pass away and you will want more than ever"
 Do you not think it would pay to cheaper the prces?'
 NO. I think the high prices are to a large extent the cause of the demand. Make diamonds as cheap as glass and no one would wear them.' Finding the cullnan. During my stay here I have seen mod els of tke Cullinan diamond made of crystal and have talked with MT. Gull linan about it and also with the miner who discovered 1t. The diamond is just bout as pig as my list. It is almost the size of a glass tumbler, and it weighs over one and one-third pounds. It is about four inches long, two and one- half inches thick and about two inches wide. If you can imagine chunk of glass of irregular shape weighing about twenty ounces you may have some idea of the shape and size of this, the great est of all diamonds
 The stone was discovered by MT. E. Wells, the mine overseer of the Premier. He was experimenting the work as walked through the diggings today. I find Said he
 I've discovered the Cullinan diamond on the 18th of January, 1904. had gang of natives working not far from the center of the pipe. We had gone down to depth of about five feet from the surface and had been taking out good stuff all day The sun was just setting and we were about to knock off when I saw something white and sparkling lying on a slope of the blue The rays of the setting sun caught it and 1t looked like fire. I took up pick and rushed to the spot The earth was already loose about the stone and in short time it was in my hand. It was so big that I was dazed at my discovery. ran with 1t across ths mine to the office, burst into the man. ager's room and laid down the stone be- fore MT. McHardy and MT. Cullinan. They were as much astonished as myself. We then weighed 1t and the next day the word was sent ont that the biggest oia- mond of the world had been found.
 A Costly Mail Packange.
 Ii is interesting to know how this great diamond got to London. Think 2s the