The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1912-11-15

y
~ g. few days ago, the cables
Nv around the world from lit
tie spot of blue ground in !
Belgian Congo.
New Diamond Field" joined COM |.
,uerce in the cry through its men OF .
Maiden Lane and their brother gem
experts in every capital.
New Diamond Field" echoed ad-
venture, tragedy, romance, keen as
ever to take advantage of the find.
For mystery and blood have followed
the costly crystal from the days in
dim antiquity when it glittered its |
way through Indian mysticism to rest
on a cleaning breast or in the hilt OF
a kings rapier, writes Thomas Me-
Weigh, Jr., in the New York World.
The diamond!
1t sparkled first in the rich soil of
India and rajahs over and over again
fought battles and shed blood for it.
It has glistened in the eyes OF idols
and been pried from them by looters'
bayonets. For centuries it could be
owned only by king. 1T exceeds in
value all human things" said Pliny
one hundred years after the Redeemer
had shed on earth the radiance of his
personality. 1.-THE sin of judah" said
jeremiah, sis written with a pen of
iron and the point of a diamond" And
once you find it in Exodus and once in
Ezekiel, and that closes it's record in
the Bible.
The Greeks, three centuries before
Christ, called i: the 'unsubduable
stone"
The wise Of the middle ages called it
"Peacemaker between wife and hus-
band"
Its Latest Discovery.
A cable of yesterday gave the world
the latest news Of it.
That news trailed from the Kasai
river district in the Belgian Congo,
more Familiarity known by its former
name of the Congo Free State, leads
under seas, over continents, across
Broadway, New York, through Liberty
street to a doc. lay marked 81. It
keeps on to the elevator, ascends
eleven floors, takes you to another
door, No. 1109, enters and finishes its
journey at the desk of Fortune
Thomas Fortune Ryan.
1t official and confirmed, 1t an
nounces, and here it is: In 1906 Mr..
Ryan and a group of Belgian capital
lists took over under the name OF the
international Society of Forestry and
Mining of the Congo as shining con-
cession, 100000 square miles In the
Belgian Congo. Prospectors at work
at Mai Munene, on the Kasai river and
at the mouth of Kabambale creek, 81
miles northwest of Mai Munene, have
found diamonds beautifully clear. In
two wee ks one man found 240 stones
Approximately 600 stones have been
found to date for about IS miles along
the Kasai river. The more northerly
of the finds are but Is miles from the
head IF navigation on the lower Kasai
on which stern-wheelers ply. Thu
largest of the stones weighed abou
one carat. Further reports, contin
ued the news naively, are awaited
with interest.
Last Discovery In 1867.
1t has been forty-five years, whicl
.akes us back to 1857 since the las
diamond discovery news of impol
lance reached New York and tina
: came from a point In Africa, nov
t l;nown as Kimberley, about sixtee7
= hundred miles south of the Kasai rive
3 district. Since then, because of tina
discovery, $sOO,oOo,OoO has been adde
10 the worlds wealth.
l. It came about in this way:
= Burgher Jacobs, to escape BIRTHS
8 r1le in Cape Colony, had settled O
= !. Dutch farm near Hopetown on tn
orange river His children used t
play in the sand with bright pebble
!. for marbles. Neighbor Schalk Va
I Neikirk noticed one Of the pebbles, r.
\ marked that 1t might be valuable an
= showed 1t to one Mr.. John O'Reilly,
. travelling trader. He in turn took
to Colesberg, cut his initials with
on the window of hotel and a
nounced that it was a diamond.
found its way to Cape Town, whe1
.. NJ. Henriette, French consul, deciariz
It genuine, sent 1t to the Paris Unive
| sal exhibition, where 1t was bought.
magnificent 21-carat stone, for $4,000
Two years later Mr.. Schalk Van NJ
kirk, still somewhat interested
bright pebbles, picked out Of the MI