The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-22
SOUTH AFRICA LOOKING UP.
1t iS Now Easy to Float Company
 ShaRNR

It is Now Easy to Float Company
 Shaees.
 Johannesburg, Nov. 21.--A year ago 1t was impossible to float any sort of speculation on the Rand. Today the people are eager to put money into anything and everything, and Johan- nesburg shows symptoms of e severe attack Of booming.
 The boom came in silently. No one noted its arrival, But suddenly 1t mo- ticed that stockholders, who used to walk into town every morning (for exercise) were beginning to ride in tramway cars, and that some reckless individuals occasionally took a cab. And at last the boom was officially recognized. It appeared on the con- tents hills of the newspapers The share market report. which for months had languished on some obscure page, was once more given a place among the cable news and the horrors. The theatres became crowded, the popping Of champagne corks sounded in hotels which had become accustomed to serv- ing sixpenny beers Instead of shilling whiskies. In some cases debts were paid--this evidence of returning pros- perity is, however. not as yet very nos ticeable.
 But it is quite like old times again. The Stock Exchange is more full of life and noise. The talk of shutting 1t up or running 1t as a club has sub sided, Back subscriptions are being paid up; office rent long ina arrear is forthcoming. Retrenched clerks are drifting back to their old work, and the excited groups in the streets out side sometimes remind one of the old days.
 Johannesburg has thrown itself into the new gamble with enthusiasm. Even .as At. nnA buried have come to life. Scrip, which has lain at the. bottom of trunks for years, looked upon almost as so much waste paper, has suddenly become worth bringing into daylight. Indeed, numbers of people have bought up all the cheap stuff they could lay their hands on, in the belief that it will so up with q run and prove saieable.
 1t is a curious thing about Johan- nesburg that as soon as there is the least indication of a boom there Is plenty of money available for market operations Where 1t comes from no one knows. But men who have not paid anyone for years suddenly begin to dabble in the share market. Fer haps much of 1t comes from the coun- try districts of South Africa. In rural Cape Colony in particular there Is oe- Iieved 10 be a great deal of hoarded gold. Oudtshoorn is said to Dc one or the most prosperous towns in Africa, and some of the farmers in the dis- trict are credited with making $2Oo'o0O or S25O, ,000 a year out of ostrich teatn- era whether these stories are exag- gerated one cannot say, but there must De a great deal of money laid away in the sub-continent. At last there IS a disposition to employ this wealth. Much of it Is going into the share market, and 1t may be that this was the origin of the boom.
 Moreover, there is spirit or conn dence abroad. The gold output goes up and working costs go down. Divi- dends are increasing. De Beers have started to work full time again-an indication that the slump in diamonos viii aoon be over. Everyone believes that South Afrieas good days are com ing back. The lean years have been long. But the turn of the fat years is at hand. There is to De boom m naaPkat.