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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1908)
De Beers - J v ' " V i ? " mm 1 r jiii Hi At the Left is J. Carpenter. Fuller, Manager of AMERICANS AT (Copywrtght, 1908, by Prank Q. Carpenter.) IMBBRLEY (Special Corra- Kspondence of The Bee.) Kirn- bt riny is the Lord's greatest t treasure vault. Stored away here In five mighty pipes of HUTU Tilt K, KMI'IK UUWIl int how deep into the earth, is one knows a blue clay sprinkled with dinmonds, ready more than $!H0,0O0,00O worth of pre cious stones have been taken from them. and there are still hundreds of millions In slnght. For many years the sales have amounted to $M,000,C00 to $30,000,000. and there are toduy lying out there In the open fields, still mixed with this clay, dia monds which would have set Aladdin craay or made covetous the heart of Blnbad the Sailor. Diamond Caultal. These mines He right close to Klmberley. They form a necklace around It, and that one of the most valuable necklaces on earth. The necklace Is decorated anew every year with $25,000,000 worth of bril liants, which are taken from these mines. They are allowed to blaze away for a few months under the African sun. and are then shipped off to dazzle the drawing rooms of all parts of the globe. The town is a strange one to be the cap- ital of such wealth. It has no palaces nor skyscrapers, and, like the Jewels of Tor- tla. its treasures are kept ln caskets of lead, The offices of the diamond trust themselves is lighted by electricity and it ha all the modern Improvements. The water comes from the Vaal river, which 1 seventeen miles away. , Bira s-cye lcw 01 tne Mines. All of the mines are the center of Klmberl the top or the higher buildings we may see the skeletons of the washing machines on every side and between them the va.t weathering floors where the precious earth contalnlng the brilliants Is allowed to lay and melt. Moving to them, from the mlnes. are great lines of what. In the die- tance. seem to be ants. They are marching In single file and are racing with one an- nthrr th.v n... tn nH trr. v u your glass and you will see that each ant is a steel car filled with dlamondlferous earth, and that It Is flying along under a wire cable from the mines to tiie fields. There fields are called floors. Every mine has its own floor, and In every direction you can see tho cars moving. The black pygmies who are handling the cars are the natlves. and the white ones on the outside are the guards to see that the blacks do 3 :J , .. I ....... lealH worm 01 uiamunus m ine foot through the tunnels Into the great pipe. k ,. . .,, ttl,m (nr h m , th,i,nj he United States and a few thousand dol- O'R.llly-not the one who ran the hotel. ground on the Klmberley floors. We went along a car track, passing train. V," 0', and purchase ?n l0o ar. would equal the cost of any bulldmg ut John O'Reilly, the hunter-made the , tne KlmDerley pilne ot this blue ground hauled by American tZ cos Ire when you are pa inside the town. The most of the houses flrBt aiamond discovery. It was when he manager. Mr. C. M. Henrotin. an electric locomotive,. As the cars reached ZolllJnJSe about Sem. .fd many have pardon. fTlUd TJ" biTthchlld en playing with Wh BradUted " Crne11 the Cl"SS f conhle"U ,nto V lr0" nothing from the party managers at the ,rr'i: svr. EHHrr : rMr HErH slss Some of the Boys Who Will Dance at the Cinderella Ball oh ' :l ' 'SW, .'.Art S OLD Z2TZ$: r; ss-s W Mines Produce $25,000,000 Worth of r4 ; 1 . a: 1 the Dutoltspan. KIMBKRLT. At the Right is Ml not steal as they work. Now turn your glass again to vn mines, About each is a mighty pit dug out of the earth. That is the opening of the mine, the wldo basin where the earth has been cut away until the great rock pipe, which -wiiiuiiib iiic uiuu v,ljf H14 mo uiaiuuiiuai Is found. rines of Diamonds. Until these Klmboiloy mines were dis covered all the diamonds found were picked up out 0f graVel which lay on or near the -urface of the earth. The Indian diamonds. among which were the Kohlnoor, the Great Mogul, the Regent and the Orloff, came from alluvial washings composed of a mix ture of broken sandstone, quartz, Jasper, ., i y - r. ' IV-- ... V :: t . j. V. iU:.; l-f, .V; . r -. - .." ... " ' :. ' - : ' . - .... flint and granite. The deposit was about eight acres was all composed of blue rock ervoirs at the bottom. There it Is loaded by twenty feet thick and was covered by a carrying diamonds, and the mine Is pro- gravity onto the cars which carry I to the lew reel or Diacx conon son. it lay near the bed of a river In India not far from few feet of black cotton soil. It lay near Golconda, which was the chief city to which the diamonds were taken and sold, The diamonds of Brazil were first dlscov- diamonds of Brazil were first dlscov- in 1723. They were found In deposits :lay. quarts, pebbles and sand, burled sr about thirty feet of other earth, cred of cl n.U nhm.l Ihlplu Tho io h- f rar. in a few cases were Imbedded in sandstone, it was the same with the diamond of Borneo, of British Quiana. Australia and California, and also of those which were first discovered along the Vaal river near here In South Africa. lt iB now over forty years since the first told that lt was $2,500. Hottentot Sets 'Em frasy. Two years after that another big stone was discovered by a Hottentot who traded wlthln a rifle shot of It to this same Boer farmer for $2,000. The one f largest diamond m ne. of the erties, and that the profit on the ore then gn(,, moreover. Is an Inspiration to youth lev. If we climb to Boer sold it to a diamond merchant and It world- .Tbls wTas ,Mr' J' ,T' F,l,11"r' ,a K,rad; oin UP wa '"""''thing like $37,000 a day. fllI collectors and a complete collection of r "buildings we may was sent to England and was eventually ulte of the t1,lsn unve"itv- tllft' Th,t "n('anB '5W an h"ur and nlht- the different Taft or Bryan buttons of the sold to the countess of Dudley for $100,000, -for $100 000. Theso two finds set South Africa crazy. Diamond seekers came at once hy the thou- sands, and tho Vaal and Orange rivers wcra soon covered with mining camps. Men went aobut everywhere digging up the gravel and searching for stones. As the river beds became exhausted the miners ,,r..Brt out nvr thn mum rv ml finaiiv got here to Klmberley. which Is fifteen miles from the Vanl. One day a Boer dls- covered some diamonds In a clay bet out of which he was taking material to build a mud hut. He kept on digging and the result was the Dutoltspan mine, which has proved one of the richest diamond pipes ever found. About the same time other claims were taken up and developed, and as a result came the five great mines which k,' '.V Hi"- - 'WT? 6FEARMEN OF THE BANXX. THE OMAIIA a v. - it ! IT ! '-.! LOADINO now form th bull of the De Beer yn- pany, nd bo large that the Klmberley dlcate. pip and the De Been pipe, which to- A the miners went down Into the earth gether are now producing something like the area In which the precious stones were $15,000,000 worth of diamonds every twelve discovered became narrower and narrower, months, could be lost Inside It. It has until at last It was, In each case, found to thirty-eight miles of tunnels In Its under conBlst entirely of a sort of blue rock or ground workings and that although It Is clay Inside great walls of other and harder not yet one-third as deep as the Kim rock. These walls were In the shape of a berloy. pipe, ana tne pipes were rouna to exiena down, down, down Into the earth, and each was filled with this blue ground. As the miners went aown the diamonds did not diminish. They were found everywhere plentifully scattered through the blue clay, and tills is so at the depth where they are mining today, although in the Klmber- ley pipe the lower levels are more than onu-halt mile from the surface. $ The Klmberley Mine. The Klmberley mine gives one an excel lent idea of how the diamonds lie ln these pipes In tne earth. The pipe begins with a great 4unnel which at the top has a mouth covering thirty-five acres and which slopes down to the pips proper, and Inside of which is about eight acres. The Kim- berley mouth 1b, I Judge, about 300 feet wide, and It slopes evenly down on all sides. The pipe itself is almost round. Its walls are of a block rock; they are almost as regularly shaped as though cut out by a chisel, and they narrow only last year, and there are now more than 2,500 feet. For that distance tHis area of ducing millions ot dollars' worth or ulu- " rnonds still. The first earth was dug up with pick and shovel .and washed In a rude way. Then wires were run down into the mine and the Blue ground was carried up by means of them. It is now elevated by greut engines through shafts outside the mine itself, and a continuous Into the mine and the blue ground was n, .... ii Ln ,i inm- Rn.no. thing like 700.000 carloads were taken up last year, and there are now morne than 1,000.000 loads lying out on the floors, in order that the wind, the rain and the sun may so weather them that the diamonds can b Uken out. The value per load Is or.lv a few dollars, but there muat be at ... t nurrKruna i.uiu.np.u, It was ln company with another Ameri- can mining engineer that I explored the underground workings of the Dutoltspan, " luo Kinen w " "' " -y yeloPed br Mr- t'"d'"" W HHams. who s now a resident of Washington, and their Prent general manager Is Mr. Alpheu. Williams, his son. In ""other place I shall speak of the workmen and tell how they are handled outside the mines. An army of over :5.- ,s her employed, and of these more ,nan 'e natives, wno are Kepi in guarded compounds and who are not al- lowed to go outside during the terms of their contracts. But come with me and take a look at the Dutoltspan. This Is the mine wtilcn was discovered by the farmer when he was building a clay hut. It Is the biggest of all the mines of the De Beer com- 4 " V J4i,L. isi rC5! v j, . kW ""'i ii " .n dudiic consciouancBB. inciciuio iiu : 1- SUNDAY BEE: SF.rTEMHEB 27, 1003. t - . -i i . ! i J I DIAMONDIFEROUS EARTH IN THE PUTOl'i'Sf AAN. Before entering the mine I was shown the malg ot the iurVeyors. The blue ground area covers about thirty acres, and this lg aI1 dr,wn t0 a acale so that one can tell the conditlon of every tunnel from the gurface down to the 750-foot level where tne bottom now Is. A great ahaft has bf,all ,unk outside the pipe, and tunnels have been run ln at intervals of forty feet to gat the diamond earth out. By this shaft this thirty-acre pipe has thus been explored to a depth equal to one and one- half times the height ot the Washington Monument, and the blue ground has been found peppered with diamonds throughout. From some of the upper levels mulch of the ground has been extracted, but mining ,s now golnK on at evy ,8Veli tho arnount of earth uken out decreasing unU at tho bottom lhprc are mtIe more t,an tlie tracks u(Jfd to ,,arry the cara of DiUB ciay tl) tne s,aft. All the ore lg laken from the 0WfBt i(n.e. Great wolls have been sunk through the pipe from top to bottom, and the blue ground of each height is carried through tunnels to these wells and dropped into res- shaft. At present they are raising 10,000 auan. i. ' a laiaiui v,vw loads to the surface every day. Four thousand negroes are employed, and ln busy seasons the miner work day and nigni. It was in company with Mr. Fuller that I went through the Dutoltspan. The mines are dirty and the rock Is so sharp night. that It cuts one's shoes. For this reason we were given boots of sole leather such as are used by the miners, and were clad in miner's clothes. $ American Electric Locomotives. . Entering the shaft we dropped quickly s V !. IWV-AWV ' V 1 BIIU l.iuu. U V. . " J As we watched the blue ground flying Dy 1 BBke(i Mr. Fuller to give me some ldpa o( the profits of the mining. He re- pney Ulat the Dutoltspan was one of the richest of the De Beers Company's prop- "r -o per minute w in ana ween uui. " ,B,U""" "AT the mining expenses, amounting to $146,000 per month and of that more than $100,C00 is for wages alone. Talk about your golden streams. As for me V would prefer one of tliese streams of diamonds e passed a continuous line of such cars on our way Into the mine proper and then walked for miles through the tunnels made in me pije 10 get oui mo uiue u.omm. Much of the mine Is unllghted and wo had to pick our way along with candles. Jump- Ing to this side and that to avoid being run down ny tne cars. i ne tunnels are just aoout as nign as one s neaa ana just wide enough for the cars to run through them. They are cut here and there by cross tunnels, and at time we could see J .. .V ?,!", --"M JrmJS9 - v - , n t -ii '! ; V,..., eoscs or nxa BROwifua. m L. ''jW an electrlo light at a crossing a mil or so In the distance. Everywhere we went the natives were working. Here they were loading the blue rock upon cars, and there they were dump ing It down through the wells to the reser voirs below. In one pluce they were blast ing. The rock Is of such a nature that compressed air cannot be used, and the men were cutting holes five feet deep by means of long chisels worked by hand. Many holes are made in a chamber and then the blasts are all set off at once. I cannot describe the terror Inspired by these blasts, as they go off down there 6tO or 600 feet below ground. The boom Is like that of a big naval gun. and It strikes the drum of your ear as though It would break it. The vibration blows out the candles and the dynamite fills the tunnels with a sickening smoke. Thirty-six thou- sand blasts are shot off in that mine every week, and nevertheless the accidents are few. During the last year only two men i,ave been killed, and this Is a smnll mor- tality considering that there are 4,000 na- tlv workmen and that tho mines are UBunlly operated both day and night. The amount of explosives used Is enormous. In 19')6, In all the mines of the De Beers com pany, there were consumed more than S.000,000 pounds of dynamite, and to set this off were used more than 600 colli of fuse, each twenty-four Inches long. The De Beers company has Its own dynamite fac tory, not fur from Cape Town. It finds It . Ui JraXt Jrl8y6Cl DJT vGLHipSllgll JlUtlOI (Continued from Page One.) itver. and these men naturally preier the quiet and business-like. They wear tne button on principle rather than a a per- sonal adornment and they stand altogether spart from the great army of miscellaneous out'on wearers who make the business a source of continuous profit. The east wears r6wer butt0118 tlian the west d mlwl 't. v These buttons range from four Inche in dlameter-which are expensive and cost $.6 I t I ., t . . , . t h ff O Y1 1 1 H I b,,itnn t ultnepthpr wasted at least sueh , the theory. . Th BM.rat hopelessness of the prohlbl- tlonlsts and socialists Is plainly visible In thp... ,ark of buttons The number of de- present season would probably run Into the hundreds. what mogt mterestlng about these de- !jfns lg thf,lr exceUent draughtsmanship and almo((, invariable good taste. The ele- ment of humor ln pom,, campaigning flnda no pIaoft on th poiica, button. If you wUh t0 h, ..funny. you may lndeel adorn y0U18elf with one of the "preelden- tial Blllle"-a- little celluloid goat with a picture or your chosen randlrtate anrt the cheerful motto "Who Is your Billy?" Or you may ask your friends to marvel at the remarkable likeness of Candidate Bryan to General Washington as shown on a folding card on whlen is a picture or Washington with the face cut out and Mr. Bryan's ln- serted under It. while a complete 'portrait" of Washington stands- on the opposite leaf Liiiiiii.ii.. M tiki (ft W mm ......... D Diamonds V'-.-r' ' 1 1 V j . . .r ; . ' -;. Zi !"f(iiU. . v. . r?; . ' ,T" .--' THH DK BEERS cheaper and safer to make Its own ex plosives. A Great Oraranlsatlen. In going through the mines and works I have been surprised at the car and economy everywhere shown. Although the company pays big dividends, not a cent Is allowed to go to waste, and the most careful watch Is kept to avoid any ex travagance. As we went through the Dut oltspan we passed a chamber where an electric light was burning, although the work had been stopped for tho time. The man In charge was reproved, and the light put out. In another place a white boy, who was keeping tally of the cara, allowed one to go by which was not quite full. He was warned that he must not credit half cars for full cars, and that he would lose his for purposes of comparison. 'The likeness, however, is a little too startling, for lt leads an attentive observer to the conclu sion that both of those portraits are of Mr. Bryan and that Washington has nothing to do with it. But the button is neither humorous nor deceptive. It Is a serious and successful effort to produce a cam paign tokxn that Is at once oheap, digni fied and attractive. Despite the millions and millions of but tons already ln circulation and the mil lions and millions yet to be manufactured the demand of tiie present campaign is merely "normal" In other words the but ton feels the effects of the panic and tfie competition that lt represents Is not as ex pensively keen as might otherwise be ex pected. So the button constantly reflects the condition of the nation or the condition of the community. Let a great man be 111 and doctor's bulletins are likely to find an echo in the orders that reach the button agency, for lf a great man dies the llttlo Btreet fuklr may fairly hope to turn many an honest penny by disposing of his por traits to the sorrowing public. But for the vice presidential candidate the demand Is very much less active. He may appear sometimes on the same button with his chief; there are even some buttons on which he appears ln isolated glory; but there Is comparatively little demand for him. And what becomes of all these burtons? The'r life Is ephemeral. Human nature being what It Is the average button wearer soon tires of his adornment, loses It, and must be Immediately suppled with another. That Is one reason why so many are cir culated and so few are visible, although In the west we should see more of them. Even so, Is seems a little surprising that anything produced In Buch quantities should disappear so completely. "They are con sumed," says the button authority. "But tons are the nourishment of a politics! campaign as bread is the nourishment of a family. After the campaign is over they've been consumed." Like the mys terious pin. they vanish and none can sny exactly what has become of them. But many of them go to the dump; and so, the little campaign button, having honor vi i mmum i ; i' y , f r.TC ;;!'. 5 f i fit .- 'w-f - if r'y A't I -- i GROUP OF TKS COURTIERS. -5 Annually MINE FROM ABOTJ4 Job lf he did not keep hi eyes open. The same economy la ahowa In the engine rooms, ln the washing machines, la the management of the blue ground on the floors, and, in fact, ln every part of the works. The De Beers company pays big dividends because It Is thoroughly well managed, and It makes one feel proud to know that, although operated almost en tirely by British capital, the managers are Americans. In another letter I shall take you over the floors where the blue clay molts from the diamonds and leaves them out In the sun, and also into the mighty washing factories, where the btitlants are taken out and made ready for shipment to all parts of the world. FRANK O. CARPENTER. ably served Its first purpose, become per manently useful as part of the foundation of future cities. Boston TranscrtpL Elopes Once Every Year ' "It keeps me hustling to make enough money so that my wife. Gold! a, can take her annual elopement," I Carry Green told Magistrate Carey in a Philadelphia court as he swore out a warrant for Samuel Shore, his brother-in-law. Green averred that his wife, whom he married ln Russia thirteen years ago, had formed the habit of eloping with Shore, a tobacconist, about once every year. He didn't mind lt so much, Green said, only Gnldle had left him a near-bankrupt when she took hor unannounced pilgrim ages with Shore, who Is married to Green's sister and has a 6-year-old son. A year ago laat July this pair ran away together, said Green, his wife carrying with her $S0O of tho family funds. They were traced to Montreal, Hartford, Conn., and other places, and returned to Philadelphia only when they became financially embar rassed. Green declared , ho has been saving up ever since the last elopement, which came recently, when his wlfo took every thing that sho could conveniently carry. In cluding $400 cash and about $100 worth of Jewelry. "She evon took my wedding stilt that I have preserved all these years," said Green In a pathetlo tone. "Maybe she wfll marry Shore some day. when my sister and I obtain divorces, and then he won't have to buy any wedding clothes. She also took a number of household articles, and It looks as though they mean to make a long stay this time. I have done my best to ke.xp them apart, but It's no use. "She packed up while I had the two children out for a walk, and when I re turned, shortly sfter 10 o'clock, the rooms upstairs looked bji though the sheriff had been there. Maybe they had a wagon I don't know. Well, I must got busy now and make some more money, because Ooldle may want to elope next year again." Phil adelphia Inquirer. Saturday I V i f-75. :.J '-All il 1 ir,S-- f 1 1 ! IV" I .X. 1
