The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-21
irAbe, Who Won q Million GambIingIn Gold, Cast Dice With Death, Lost OrlydLeg
nY MILTON BR0NNER MA Service European ManaEer

N&A Service European Manager
 London. oct. lO.-- Sir Abe Bailey, nnltImllllonalre South African gold mAenate, tossed the dice with Old Nan Death the other day--and won ae had to give up Q left leg to do 1t, but he won. He usually does.
 It was this way: Sir Abe, who lives most of the time in England nowadays. came down with phle.. bitis, q disease in which a clot of blood forms in a vein. If the clot does not dissipate, the trouble Is fatal, unless 1t is possible to op perate. Tn Sir Abe's case 1t meant taking off . leg. AS he is 73, the doctors and surgeons feared sur- Nical shock, but the patient grimly told them to get on with 1t. For he himself had once said:
 "All my life I've gambled. I've gambled with gold wool, horses and my life"
 He came through the operation nll right. As they carried him to a car on his way to his Norfolk country home to recuperate,. he grinned broadly and remarked;
 'Now, apart from rheumatism, arthritis, heart trouble and old age, am perfectly we'll"
 South African Gold
 Sir Abe is one of that flock of South African millionaires about whom very little Is heard in Amer ica, but like many 0 millionaire of the United States, he made his for tune in gold fields,
 Ills father was 0 Yorkshlreman who emigrated to Cape Colony.
 So Abe, too, was drawn to South Africa and laid the foundations of his first fortune-by playing crick- otl The Cape Colony team badly needed Q player. Bailey agreed to play, provided they paid him five dollars for every run he made. He scored 30 times, Ills team won. The grateful folks not only paid him the elO0 agreed upon. but raised 5000 extra as 0 gift. Money was easy in those days in that part of the world
 Ups and Downs
 within six months, by specula- tons in wool, Abe Bailey had run this up to $l00,000 He lost most of 1t In further speculationS,
 With about $500 at the age Of 22 he set off for Barberton, then in the midst of 0 wild gold rush He was soon worth $60,000 and lost that.
 But Bailey looked to the future, It's other name was Johannesburg and its rich mines. He got in on the ground floor and stayed there
 But 1t looked aS If he had lost it oil when he took part In the fa- mous Jameson Raid, which was really the prelude to the war be- tweoil England and the Boer re- publicS. Old Oom Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal Repub- lie, had his men on the Job and all of tho raiders were arrested. One of them, the late American mining en- gineer, John Hays Hammond, was condemned to death, but was pard- oned. Bailey was given two years Imprisonment, but only served l3 WeeiB.
 When the Boer war broke out. he served with the British forces, winning the Kings and Queens Medals, with six clasps. Tho war over and won, he returned to Johannesburg and resumed his in- terrupted business career,
 Friend of Rhodes
 He became Q friend and buSi- ness and political associate of the famous Cecil Rhodes, the empire builder.
 Years later, when Rhodes died man seeking to flatter Bailey, said
 "Well. Abe, they say his mantle has fallen on you,"
 To which Bailey dryly replied
 DO they2 Well, I've always noticed secondhand clothes never it."
 Bailey now began to spend good part of every year In Eng land, where his operations on the stock exchange attracted notice He was knighted in 1911.
 When the World War broke out. he served in the campaign against the German forces in German Douthwest Africa, his generals be- ing Botha and smuts, against whom he had fought in the Boer war. Later he came to Europe and served with the British forces in Flanders. He was made c baronet in 1919.
 Horses His Consolation
 one Of his side issues was maintaining huge racing stables and stud farms in South Africa md England. The Bwank Jockey Club elected him q member in 1929. Ills horSc8 have won many of the famous English prizes but never the Derby, When ho was on his sick-bed recovering from the nmputation of his leg, the best etiinulant they could give him was 10 report that Rt the York races his Golden Sovereign had just won the dimcraek Stakes, that his WeatherVAne had come in first in the Ebor Handicap,
 Generous with his wealth, Sir Abe especially showers his be- loved South Africa with libraries and with monetary subsidies to fanVaion eiVil aviation.