Show DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS hard biard and life that has a ivola IVol 1 I 1 ri t lo 10 tuition moll labout it I 1 lim hove 0 j just had a few days t among the river diamond diggers near II ebron on the vaal a traveler in ahejew clors circular tho the work here is carried wn on by individual diggers iggers fl each man leasing 0 liis his claim and working it himself with w ith the aid of a few nativo native laborers they are a motley crowd these diggers tind and io of almost every nationality it iz ia a hard and precarious existence diamonds are arc ft few w and far between but when found liev they ire are generally of first class quality and realize high prices the diggers are arc mostly men inen ot of very small means their tools and washing gear are about all ah they have and they consequently live very poorly meal of rough quality i is often the only food that passes their lips from one months end to another this they usually get g ct on credit from s some storekeeper w wh lifur furnishes them with the bare of lift life on the of oft f cliance chanco of their ands most of the di diggers dig c gers gem of course have 1 a I fini find some time or other though there are stran inge re instances of ill luck following the quest for diamonds year af after ter year 1 I had a conversation with one old roan man who lind been at this sort of work vork for nineteen years and I 1 am af afraid raid to say how long it is tince lie he has had a turn of luck inck lie ife had lived nearly all al i this timo time on meal and there lie he was toiling away at about the work cancan man can undertake yet seemed willing to go on to the end this labor however though heavy has a won wonderful gerful fascination for those who once take to it ir A very fine stone had been found a few lays days before my arrival it was valued between seven hundred and eight 0 hundred pounds toward the end endom of last month 0 brothers brot bers had a marvelous marv clous run of luck they found stones to the value of over four thousand pounds in a very short apace of time |