United States Purchases Great Portion . V-'-; : A- L. (Copyright, 190S, br Frank O. Carrcnter.) IMBERLET. tSi.tclal Curre- rjr 1 tpondpnc of i"i .) The UL I managur of nil tho Kieat UU- I . .... .1 I ... t . f trnVlur. IIIUI1U 'Jiiia nwmii i . i m u--. ley la an American. Ilia name Is Alpheua Wllllarna, and he Is tae non of Mr. Gardner V. WUllaina, who took charge of the mlnea at the time tha e Doers company wan organized, and who managed thnm until three yaars ago. Dur ing Gardner Williams' control the mines became the chief source of the diamond supply of the world. He had charge of them for about twenty years, and In that time they produced almost IIWUOOO, QUO worth of diamonds and paid out 118,UuO.(X In divi dends. Since his son has been handling them they have been yielding In the neigh borhood of $25,MO,CUO a year, and the pros pect Is that they will produce millions an nually for many years to come. Nauftr ( Do Been UsMur I It Is a big thing to be tha manager of a company like this. It means the control of an army of wage-workers greater than that which Xenophon led on his march to the sea, and equal to tha standing army of the L'nlted States before our war with Spain. During tha laat two years Mr. Wil liams has had on his payroll In tha neigh borhood of 28.0UO men. This number baa been reduced slue1 tha American panic, but still It runs up close to 16,009 and It will be increased as the times Improve, All of these men have to be fed and the aupptiea which they consume cost millions. Tha five great diamond pipes which are now being mined hare are operated with the most axpenalva machinery. They have vast works connected with them, and tha weath. ring fields, with their miles of cable cars, cover 11.000 aores, or over seventeen square miles. Most of you can realise the sise of a 160-acre farm. Tha diamond floor and washing works of tha De Beers com pany here would cover Just about seventy two such farms, and every square yard of that area Is humming with Industry. Ncaily every square of it yields mora or less value; It has to have guards to watch It, and the greatest economy Is re lulred to keep tho millions from leaking away. In the year iJ the wages paid amounted to over f 10,000,000 and the food iKcs.iiuies of the native laborer almost cigarette. and wer. supplied with M.00O new shirt and 53.000 pair of trousers. Th. Item, for mining supplies are even larger. It took "Ofl.oi o pounds of candles to light the men at work In th tunnels and more than 1,000 miles of Bt'.-I wire rope to haul the cars. The new tlmbtj for the mines, which came from San Francisco, amounted to moi. than 18,000,000 feet board measure, and th. Iron and .tee) bar., bras, castings and bolt, and nuts ran high Into hundred, of thousand, of pounds. In addition to th. mine., th company has a number of other Institution, in and about Klmberley. It has $00,000 acre, of land, a great farm for raising Its horsas and mule, an lectrlc railroad, a hotel and hospital, and club.. It practically controls the town of Klmberley, which ha. a population of SO.000, so ihat altogether th mine manager ha little time to .pare. , ' Talk Akxiat Diamond. It was in th .ffic of tli D Beer cunipii ihat 1 bad a Uik with th man who contiuU all the Institution. Mr. Alpheua V llliaina Is not yet over ia year. of age H. wa. born in th United stats., and educat.d at Corn.il and th. Univsr- alty of California bfor he cam. out bar aora. ya.r ago to be hi. fath.r' assistant. When the latter retired In 101 h wa loid in his place, and .inc. then he ha been in charge of all the U Bear, company' properties h.r. During my talk with him th subject of ti diamond demand came up, and he replied that It had been excellent until our great panic ooourred. Up to that time hi world wa taking the whole of th Klm berley output, and the company bad but comparatively few diamond, on hand. TU people were everywhere prosperous, and th.y were buying diamond a. n.ver be fore. Thl. waa specially o in th United State, which wa taking almost three-fourth of all th diamond, pro duced her. Then th panlo cam, and our demand dropped. Fortunately th De Wr company had an normou amount oi otu ground on iia noor., and it ha been abl. to reduce it expense without any dang.r of being unable to .upply th demand of th. near future. Today th force, and they will b operated on a very con.rvaUv basis until th. tlm.a Improve. American Market. In talking with Mr. William about th American market, I ask.d hlra what kind of tone wer. purchased Dy W He re plied: "Tti. very peat. Tne rin.ai ana purest of our diamond go to th United Slate and within pest years that country ha. been by far our best customer. For some tim it took two-third of all th diamond, .0d during the past year or so It has bought even more. We send also many ordinary .tone th.re. There Is a great demand la our country for diamond ngainat ring. In fact, w are about the only peopl. among whom every young maa think, h must give a diamond ring .M0.fc0 more. Supplies for th men who the dLappolnUnent, of the town folks. In "n'n repumicans wno ,aa oeen carr.ea have to be fed In w.lled compound, would 0M wnere u M been f,KUred the Zy- .I Xo Sr.de" came TcW tax the capacity of our largest department T.ft ,Dec,al would run M does the usual ,ndu,,trr ana nome PrlJe came bacK stores. They used last y.ar almost 6.000,000 l.ThVton band had to race a block 10 C,Unp nd 8hUt the door frm the ln' loaves of bread and som.th.ng Ilk. 1.000,000 1. to b on time wTth a we- Me' Rnd thPy WlU ",ray " m0re- For pound, of freah meat Th.y drank 1.000,000 ! m u t 5." 11. and the the Ptlo words of Will Hay ward, then bottle, of milk, .moked 2.0UJ.0U0 cigarette. JS! chairman of the republican, state commit- '"''.-W '.'if - " ' t - A - A.A - .. k:AHL..iy.A'f ' ' ROCK DRILLING IN TUB D'BEERB MINE. to his sweetheart to seal the promise of marriage. This Is so much the custom that many prospective grooms are now buying such rings on the Installment plan, and there Is a regular business of selling them on long time, at so much down and at so much per month, until paid. Dia monds are also uned largely as wedding presents and as birthday glftn." Americas Dlaaaoad Cntters. "In what shape do the diamonds go to the United States, Mr. Williams?" I asked. "The most of them are first cut In Eu rope," was the reply. "We have a duty of M per cent on cut diamonds, which Is levied to protect the American diamond cutting Industry, but the fact that more than two-thirds of the importations are In the shape of cut stones shows that tho tariff is not high enough lor that pur pose. In 1908 the United States Imported about 34,000,CO0 worth of diamonds, and of these only $10,000,000 worth were in the rough, while $2,000,000 worth were cut atones. Rough diamonds are free of duty." "But, Mr. William, are the American diamond cutters equal to those of Europe? Can the atone be as beautifully shaped and polished at horn a abroad?" "Tea, Our diamond cutter are mainly from Holland and Belgium, and the moat of them learned their trade before they emigrated. Aa It 1 now, we have over 400 uch workmen In and about New York, which I the center of the Industry. This 1 a small number compared with the thou sand employed In Antwerp and Amster dam."' . 6 Sawing; aad Poliahla; Diamonds. "Tha business of diamond cutting has materially changed of lata years," con tinued Mr. William. "We have now dia Judge Taft's Tour of Nebrask (Continued from Pag One.) to speak as Mr. Taft reached the platform. The crowd here numbered many thousands. The Taft apeolal ran on schedule time. much to the surprise, and frequently to train was ushered in to the music of the band. The train was in charge of Colonel Ramsdoll, sergeant-at-arm of the United States senate. He stood by the side of Judge Taft during .very speech. He held his watch in his hand. When the time was up he waved to the conductor and the train pulled out, frequently without a warning whistle, and often when the speaker was In the middle of a sentence, which he never completed, o far a. the crowd know. Thl pulling out of the train right on th dot causd a barrel of fun for th. people of Wahoo and on tha train and a hogshead of humiliation to Warden A D. Jm,r- Tb warden, who weigh. In the neighborhood of 260 pounds, haa lumbered ott tn trln 111 who n1 walked to the rear nd to hear tne candidate. By th Um nad squared around and become settled down In a good place to stand the train started without so much a. sounding th whistle. The warden made a grab for the car, but a half dosen were ahead of him and he missed. Then cam. a grand rush down the track after the fast dlsap- Pwltif Taft. Someone saw the warden and the train waa atopped several blocks away. Th warden kept a-comlng, while a dosen small boy. on foot and a boy on a pony paced him. Th warden was hauled aboard, puffing and blowing, but Judge Taft enjoyed hi run o much the warden kept hi tempr, even If he wa "Jo.hed" by th. bunch. Durlng the trip through Nebra.ka, no- cording to those on board the train, Mr. Taft developed a considerable amount of humor which lie used In some of hi speeches. For Instance, at one stop Mr. Taft waa speaking of the Biyan remedies and ha quoted thla, which waa an inscrip tion on an ancient tombstone: I wa. well, I wanted to be better; I took medicine And her. I am. But Mr. Taft 1. by no mean, a humorous speaker. He doe not pose vsn as an en- tertalner. He U a tudent and hi udden humorou remark wer so unexpected by tho on m, ,raln that they bc.m, . fop lern corr,.ponUnt.. While tn every town where th train t0PPM there were large and enthusiastic crowd, th night m.ettng in Lincoln topped them ell. Omaha greeted the can didate with an Auditorium completely filled, but at Lincoln r.d fir wa burned and a parade, th Ilk of which wa never before seen her, wa given ha hi honor. It wa. In hi horn, town that Mr. Bryan attempted to take th edge off the dera ontrtlon by telegraphing hi. brother to "Y ' ryn piciura ucn uuwn. The telegram, instead of being taken a a compliment to Judg. Taft by th. repub- llcaaa, waa tak.n. Just the other way. Most of the Bryan picture, had com. down long ago. Thoe that were up when the t.U- gram came evidently remained up. for while the city wa. profuMly dacoratcd with Taft pictures, ther. still remained in plain sight uum.rou. Bryan banner at- mond saws by which we can cut pieces from a diamond and make two or more diamonds out of one. Here, for Instance, Is the kind of saw which is most commonly used." At this point Mr. Williams handed me a copper disk about aa thick as my thumb nail and as big around as the bottom of a tea cup. The metal was comparatively soft and I could not see how It could cut a diamond, which Is harder than the finest of steel, until S!r. Williams said that the wheel was dipped in diamond dust and the dust did the cutting. "It la on this same principle that all diamonds are ground and polished," said Mr. Williams. "The only thing that will cut a diamond Is a diamond Itself, and all polishing must be done with diamond dust. In the cutting establishments this Is, done on flat wheels of soft iron as big aa a dinner plate, which are so moved by machinery that they go around at the rate of 2,000 revolutions a minute. Theso wheels are covered with a mixture of dia mond dust and water, and the precious stones fastened Into cement are pressed upon tho wheel and ground off Into the facets, which so Increase their brilliancy. Tthe splitting of diamonds Is done by other diamonds, which might be called diamond knives. The latter are fixed In cement and are used to split tho dia monds at the flaws which tho stones fre quently have. There are something like 10,000 men and women employed in tho diamond cutting and polishing Industry of Amsterdam, and they handle gems worth many millions of dollars every year. The greater part of the De Beers output Is cut In Europe, and the center of the Industry Is Amsterdam. It Is said that more than $8,000,000 Is paid out In wages to the diamond workers of that city tached to the front of buildings In which there were Bryan sympathizers. The magnificent welcome given Mr. Taft in Bryan' home almost overwhelmed him. Following the meeting he expressed his deep gratitude for the interest shown. tee and now secretary of the national com mlttee: "Where Bryan brings his pennies to Lin coln, we will bring dollars; where Bryan brings his dozens, the republicans will bring their hundreds." A nice feature of the parade in Lincoln was the fact that Mr. Taft rode behind a team of beautiful grays in whose veins runs the best blood In the horse world. The grand sire of the two horses was Lin den Tree, a horse presented to General Three Short One on Debn, UGKNE V. DEBS, the socialist leader, tells tho following story on himself: "I was to address a publla meeting and there was Intense prejudice aga'lnst me, so the E young man who had to Introduce mo thought he would try to disarm It. " 'Deb Is hated by soma people,' he said, 'because he has been In strikes. This Is not right. It Is the law of nature to defend yourself. Why, even a dog will growl if you try to deprive him of the bone he is gnawing, a goat will butt if you get in his way, and you know what a Jackass will do If you monkey with him. Ladle, and gentlemen, this Is Deb, who will ad- ores you.' " On Rranlt of Prohibition. Oovernor Burke, iu the smoking compart ment of a sleeper, was telling how ha used to water the cows on his father's farm In Iowa. Those cow. wer. fearfully thirsty at times," .aid the governor. "At times I have carried ten pall, apiece for every on of the twenty cow w. had." On. of the party remarked that he had watered cow. tlm. and again, but never saw on. drink more than four pall, at a time. "Perhaps you're right," admitted the gov ernor, "but you must remember that those were dry time. In Iowa, when we had prohibition law.." Minneapolis Journal. Pat' Convincing; Henson. It wa. a sorrowful looking group of news paper men. They had gathered at tha asaauging station becau. th. politician were there instead of at the official head quarters, relates th New York Time. And the gloom settled deeper when, In- .te.d of talking of affair, of state and tn. essential things or tne campaign, the men who operato th card Index, col- ct money, aanign .peaker. and deny ru- mors, began to retail a lot of stories, th m.Jority of which had done service slnoe th. tlm. of Jackson. Just why one story remind, on. of an other of an entirely different sort is a prob lem which the psychologists have not as yet solved. But Just permit one fellow tn a THE OMAHA, SUNDAY HEE: OCTOBER 11, 1908. . ( : ' , ' '' ' ' - . .- "-i, 1 ht "' ' l , 1 1 ' ' DIAMOND IN TUB BLUB GROUND. every year and that there are something like sixty factories In which the cutting and polishing Is done." Diamond Output Not Falling;. I asked Mr. Williams whether we would ever have a diamond famine, aaylng that I had heard that the mine were playing out. He replied: "Any statement of that kind is not true. We have enough diamonds In sight to keep us busy for many years, and we shall probably be supplying most of the dia monds of the world for several genera tions to come. As It Is now, jve havo something like 10,000,000 loads of the blue, containing the diamonds, weathering upon our floors, and there are between 60.000,000 and 80,000,000 hiore loads In sight. In the Do Beers mlno there are more than 5,000, 000 loads yet to be taken out above the 2,000-foot level, and In the Klmberley more than l.Soo.OOO loads above the 2,600-foot level, which we have now reached. In the Weaselton there are 10,000,000 loads above the 600-foot level, and In the Du toltspan 31,000.000 loads above the 750-foot level, while tho amount In the Bulfontcln mine above the flno-foot level, to which we have sunk the shaft. Is about 7.800,000 loads. All told, wo - have somewhere be tween eo.oro.ooo and 70,0no.noo loads of blue ground on our floors and In sleht. Tho total amount washed and crashed last year was over 8.50O.O0O loads, and that produced diamonds which realized about $28,000,000. At the same rate of washing the blue on the floors and In sight would last for over eleven years and would pro duce considerably over $300,000,000 worth of diamonds." "Have you yet reached a point In any of the pipes where the diamonds have played out?" I asked. "No. The number and value of the Grant by the khedlve of Egypt and later City, la., through his entire trip over the the office of president Is a very responsl- find no reason why anyone .hould In this presented to General Colby of Beatrice by slato by Senutor Elmer J. Burkett, Sen- ble position to fill. He did not attempt to state vote for the democratlo nominee In General Grant. The horses are now owned ator Norrls Brown, Governor George L. 'minimize the duties of the office, but, on stead of for the republican candidate, by a Lincoln livery man and they are used Sheldon and National Committeeman Vlo- the other hand, he gave the people to un- Nebraska Is strictly an agricultural state, only on state occasions. tor Rosewatur. From Sioux City to Lin- demand that he fully realised that the and If the farmers have any fault to find And Mr. Taft pleased the Lincoln audi- coin he was accompanied by C. O. Whedon, man who Is president of the United States with present condltlons.I fall to know what ence and the hundreds from out In the state committeeman; W. B. Rose, deputy holds the most responsible position In the it is. The farmers of Nebraska have been slato who helped to swell It into the thou- attorney general, and C. B. Edgar, editor world. through a siege of hard times during tha sands. He was so different from Mr. of the Lincoln Star. These formed the Governor Sheldon, who wa with Taft last democratic national administration Bryan that the fact was remarked upon. Lincoln reception committee. In addition auring the trip through Nebraska, had and I believe they do not care to run tha Ho had no funny stories to tell the audi- to these theie wire local newspaper men thla t0 Btty of tn9 republican candidate: risk of going back to those times. They ence as does Mr. Rryan. He appealed not and at every station a local reception com- Judge Taft n eyery way emlnently r, prosperous, their products are selling l" "" ol" "' he made no attempt to array the masses against the classes, as the democrul'ia can didate has done for twelve years. He Just talked good, hard, every-day common sense In a business-like way, scholarly as students can who thoroughly understand their subjects. C. O. Whedon remaiked at the close of the address: "It was the best address I ever heard." And there were many who endorsed the sentiments. Mr. Taft was accompanied from Sioux Campaign Stories Told crowd to start the story telling game and every other fellow In the party seems to think that he is duty b und to be reminded ' of another. "As a matter of fact," growled one reporter who had been esilgned to gather all tho yarn3 he could, there la nutliing funny In politics. I've ben hang Is nothing funny in politics, I'vo been hang fur a week trying to get enough stuff to gether to fill a column. The boss wants a i-e-.T, 2hl RKPREHENTAT1VK8 oc WK VATIONAL WOOL GROWLR' ASSOCIATION CI TV DURING THE WEEK of World's Diamond Output D' BEERS stone In the various pipes have not in creased a we have gone down, but they hold their own. At the Klmberley mine we are now working a half mile below the grass root and the blue ground there Is about a rich In diamonds as it was all the way down. In the De Beers we are down 2,000 feet and In the Klmberley and the De Beer they have oeen working al most constantly for thirty-six years, and It Is believed that the mines have still a long life before them. The Wesselton, Bulfon teln and Dutoltspan have altogether an area about four and one-half times as large aa the Klmberley and De Beer combined, and, although an enormous amount of dia monds have been taken from them, there are still 60,000,000 loads of blue ound above .the 500, 600 and 760-foot levels. There Is no reason to think that the diamonds may not go a far down In these pipes as In the De Beer and the Klmberley, and the prospect I that there will be no diamond famine for many, many years to come." Diamond Pipes. "Tell ma something about these diamond pipes. Do they occur anywhere else In the world than here?" "Yes. There are some other In South Africa, a notable one being the Premier diamond mine, near Pretoria. There are similar pipes near Syracuse, N. Y., and elsewhere, but, with the exception of South Africa, the ground within the pipes does not contain diamonds. I understand that the Brasillan diamonds are found in a sort of spring sandstone." "Are the pipes regular in shape?" "No; thoy vary aa they go downward. The Klmberley mine at the top la shaped like a pear. At a depth of a few hundred feet It becomes somewhat like a gourd, and it changes as It goes on. In some places a Succession of , ties of their towns. Congressmen Boyd, Pollard and Htnsiiaw were on the train, each through his own district. In appearance Judge Tuft was an agree- ' able surprise to many who saw him. He had been pictured as an enormous fat man, ponderous and unwieldy. Nebraskaus saw him as an athlete; large, but not un proportioned; big, but graceful. They en joyed his quiet humor and were Impressed with his dignity. Mr. Taft made the Nebraskans feel that few thousand word, of light and airy pre- slflage. but I haven't been able to dig up anything worth while but a few remarks of 'L'ucle Joe,' and his contributions are so picturesque that Dan Campbell wouldn't let the sheet go through the mails if they wero printed, even if Bill Murtln didn't, knock them out as chestnut and howl about uch drllvel taking the placo of real, live news." Industrial Move of Great BBBM. w f J . i 1 i 1 1 .,.. -.4; - "J:".' COMPANY' 3 OFFICES AT K 1MBEKLEY. the rocky walls bulge out and In others they contract, so that we cannot tell Just how they will run, although their direction Is comparatively straight," Ion Grade Proposition, "There Is one thing that should be said In respect to the diamonds of this part of the world," continued Mr. Williams. "The mining of them Is a low-grade proposition and It pays well only because it Is scien tifically and economically handled, and that on a large scale, Indeen, it Is wonderful how much work It takes to get out the diamonds. In the Dutoltspan we have to handle four tons of earth to every carat, and It is about as bad in the Klmberley. Now, when you remember that a diamond weighing a carat is not as big as a .pea, and that It has to be found and taken out of this great mass of earth and rock, you will see how difficult the problem Is. In the first place, we have to blast down tli blue ground. We then carry it to the sur face and allow it to He out In the open for one year to soften It. After that It must be washed and crushed and handled again and again to find the stones. All this means an enormous amount of labor as well as expensive machinery, which must be carefully operated." "Yes, but It pays," said I. "It does pay. The value of the De Beers mino per load Is about 24 shillings, or $6. It costs us $2 to get out the diamonds, so that we have a profit there of something like $4 per load. In the other mines the profit varies and all told about half or more of tho values are eaten up by the cost of operating the mines and getting out the diamonds. A load weighs In the neighborhood of three-quarters of a ton. The values of the blue ground and the ..... . .... .-.....,. , fM .,.... try. He Is a real statesman; a broad- mlnded man; a man all through. His ex- perlence has been such that ho can as- sume the duties of the presidency without fear on the part of the people. The nation will reap the benefits of his experience In tho different departments of government when he becomes president. "Insofar aa Nebraska Is concerned. In my opinion there is no doubt Its electoral vote will be cast for Judge Taft. I can About Political Candidates "Kver hear the one about Bryan running so often?" Interjected the new member. Of courso all hands knew Just whut was com ing there are but seven stories in th. world but the new member had Just or dered and was entitled to Sumo courtesy. As the gloom deepened he told this one: "Well Pat, I suppose you are going to vote for Bryan?" "No, Bir." Importance to the o a 4 AXD OMAlfA BUS1NWWJ IU5N WHO BNTKRTAIN10D TlfUil W1ULEJ B THB D ...... ... t vr. oost of production vary 1n different mines, but altogether they pay well." Train Robbery TVhlrn Failed. After the diamonds have been mlnml and oleaned they are sold to the diamond syn dicate. I visited the offices of this organ isation In the De Beers company building and took a look at the steel vaults In which the brilliants are kept until shipped to Lon don. They are sent there by mull and isually In registered packages. They go on mall cars to Cape Town and from there to Southampton on the big steamships of the Union Castle line. The trains which carry them over the 800 or 700 miles of track from here to the Cape of Oood Hope are equipped with safes, which have been es pecially built for tho purpose. The steel floors of the safes are, as I understand It, a part of the floor of the car. Not long ago a would-be diamond thief got the Idea that If he could cut out this steel plate $1,000,000 worth or more of dia monds would drop Into his hand. He pre pared for his work by crawling under tho car before It started. He had a board un der him and lay there on his back during the first part of the Journey, while he drilled forty-nine different holes up through the safe. He had the floor plate Just about loose and was sawing with a steel saw from one hole to another when something made htm think he was discovered and he dropped out and ran. The alarm was a false one and he might easily have gotten the diamond had not his nerve failed him. That attempt was made many years ago, and since then the safes have been so Im proved and fortified that It would be Im possible to cut through them. It would seem, however, that they might easily be held up by train robber and that a little dynamite or nitroglycerin would suffice to lay their contents bare to tha thieves. FRANK O. CARPENTER. Triumphs for hlah Drlces and their lands are in- creasing In value.. Judge Taft is so evl- dently qualified to continue the work of President Roosevelt I feel sure In my own mind how the people of Nebmska will vote." Nebraska wns the first state In the union to endorse Judge Taft for the republican nomination. For that reason, and many others, It Is Important to the republlcun party, and to the state, that It make goKl In November. II. H.' P. "What?" "No. sir." What? You a democrat and all your family and friend, democrats, and you ro not going to vote for Bryan?" "No.sr." "And why not, Pat?" "Because 1 can only vote for Taft this once, while I can vote for Bryan any oi l time." West " Va,, a '! . a 'fir a. f f ::