Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1912-11-22
rlyEw Diamond Field" flashed.
I'M few days ago. the cables
V around the world from lit

V around the world from lit
tie spot OF blue ground In
Belgian Congo.
New Diamond F1eid!" joined com
merce In the CRY through its men of
Maiden Lane and their brother gem
experts In every capital.
New Diamond Field" echoed adj
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 II glittered its
way through Indian mysticism to rest
on . cleaning breast or In the hilt Of
q kings rapier. writes Thomas Mo-
Weigh, Jr.. In the New York World
The diamondl
Il sparkied first In the rich soil Of
India and ra1ahs over and over again
fought battles and shed blood for II.
II has giistened In the eyes of idols
and been pried from them By looters'
bayonets- For centuries 1t 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. The sin of Judah" said
jeremiah, Els written with q pen Of
iron and the point OF diamond" And
once you ind II in Exodus and once In
Ezekiel, and that closes its record in
the Bible.
The Greeks. three centuries before
Christ, called II the ''unsubduable
stone"
The wise OF the middle ages called It
"Peacemaksr between wife and hus-
; band.
In 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 q door .say marked 81. 1t
keeps on to the elevator, ascends
eleven floors. takes you to another
door, No. HOS. enters and finishes its
journey at the desk Of Fortune
Thomas Fortune Ryan.
II oflcial and confirmed, 1t an
nounces, and here It IL: In 1906 Mr..
Ryan and q group Of Belgian capital.
lists took over under the name OF the
international Society OF Forestry and
Mining Of the Congo. as mining con-
cession, $4,000 square miles In the
Belgian Congo. PROJECTORS at work
at Mai Munene, on the Kasai river and
at the mouth Of Kabambale creek, st
miles northwest of Mai Munene, have
found diamonds beautifully clear. In
two weeks one man found z40 stones
Approximately 600 stones have been
found to date for about rs miles along
the Kasai river. The more northerly
of the finds are but Is miles from the
head Of navigation on the lower Kasai
on which stern-wheelers ply Tit
largest Of the stones weighed abou
one carat. Further reports, contin
ued "the news" naively. are awaited
with interest
Last Discovery In 1867.
IL mas D66u IOEty-uNo years, WhASA
takes us back to 1857, since the las
diamond discovery news of impor
lance reached New York and ina
came from q point In Africa. nov
known as Kimberley. about sixtsel
hundred miles south of the Kasai rive
district Since then, because Of tina
discovery, $500. 000. 900 has been adde'
20 the worlds wealth
Il came about In this way:
Burgher Jacobs. to escape British
rule in Cape Colony. had settled o
q Dutch farm near Hopetown on tn
Orange river. His children used t
play In the sand with bright pebble
for marbles. Neighbor Schalk Va
Neikirk noticed one of the pebbles, n
marked that 1t might be valuable an
showed It to one Mr.. John o'Reilly.
travelling trader. He In turn took
TO Colesberg, cut his initials with
ON the window Of a hotel and 81
nounced that It was a diamond.
found it's way to Cape Town. wher
M. Henriette, French consul, declarin
II genuine, sent II TO the Paris Unive
sal exhibition, where 1t was bought,
magnificent 21-carat stone. for $1,000
Two years later Mr.. Schalk Van Ne
kirk. stu somewhat interested
bright pebbles, picked out OF the mu