Show the kich quarries DIAMONDS of south africa steals from these mines of wealth it is remark able that of the 37 exports from south africa wore for adornments for ladies ostrich feathers and diamonds twenty yeas ago all known dias monds had come to europe or the united states from immemorial eastern stocks or from the scanty produce of mines in brazil and elsewhere which were calculated to yield not more than worth in the year today to day situated in the midst of a wide stretching plain affording at all points a ecaline horizon of flat veldt we find the town of kimberly with a large european population of wealthy and belldo people and a large native population earning every year more than in wages and from this mining oasis m the agricultural desert has been the last fifteen years something like worth of diamonds in the rough which with the cost of setting and selling must have taken from the pockets of consumers something approaching THEIR the south african diamond mines have their own etory of unexpected discovery di covery at the least as startling as that of any old field or other rich mineral deposit in the world in 1867 the first diamond was found the favorite tolof a little boer girl which she had picked up from among the roots of an old tree its genuineness was not long n doubt and in a few months the aed of the vaal river was known as a profitable diamond region respecting became the rage and bere iere and there on the open flat grassy veldt diamonds were found n spots in three yeara time the lacret odthe diamond deposits had een fathomed as to prove hat they were strange circular de posits or patches of pecolar earth isolated from one another and few in number these were at once rushed and a regulation digging community took possession of the new district private individuals previous proprietor and governments fought for the claims to these new riches but despite these squabbles the practical work was carried on of the marking out these circular patches in diggers claims over the flat surface at first the rule was each digger for himself and with pick and shovel diamonds were brought to grass in such profusion that the whole mining world was startled by 0 ery exceeding in magnitude real and prospective any previous bindi but as men dug deeper in their claims so they found it necessary to arrange and amalgamate with their neighbors moreover the deep er they went the more necessary for machinery to hoist be soil to the surface and then as they passed on through the top yellow they came upon a blue soil which was yet more rach in diamonds THE WORKINGS suffice it to say that in ten years time each one of these great circular areas had been so far emptied of toil as to represent great quarries to yards across and to feet deep round each great basin or quarry is a circle of steam engines working wire rope lifts up and down at tha bottom of the query and round th brink run locomotives and trains of trucks whisking the blue fid brought up away to be spread out like manure over the veldt and to be taken thence when duly disintegrated by the weather broken up by hand and harrowed and rolled to abo washing places where it is sent by hydraulic action through a series of rotary sieves and pul on tho principle ot in successive mechanical operations washing away all dirt that is lighter than diamonds the washers are BO arranged that the outfall of each portion is bradu abed in size and falls on a edriea ot sorting tables at these stand five or eix of the principal men owners and director of companies among them spreading out the clean fahed ones graded from the size of pebbles to that of sand and the visitor may stand by in wonder to aeo the searcher at the one end pick out hia eight or ten big stones per hour or assist the searcher at the other busily sorting out of the sand innumerable chite specks of diamond the days work tumbled into email anuff boxes will frej a local value of w EFFECT OF FALL IN the fall in prices has however already checked the output as beveral of the smaller raining bodies arid also those working minea have ceased work il Beema probable also that even the larger the then M the supply falla may prices be expected to rase y bui this fall in prices is not only due to overproduction over production itis estimated that 10 per cent of tho fall is due to th e stolen diamonds these of course can bo and are sold at very low prices as their price of production usually maans some trifling eum paid to a native laborer for what ho can secrete on his person or by ather means smuggle out of the mine in the earlier days when each man worked for himself there no diamond stealing but as it grew necessary to work on a larger scale and by the aid of hired labor and as at the same the process of operating afforded new opportune itcea fur stealing this crime grew to ibe one of the greatest curses of the industry at present at every stage of the process laborers and employees come across diamonds the men down in the mine blasting and picking out the blue frequently come upon the valued stones and as the stuff is handled at every stage diamondis ss how themselves the natives posted to empty the buckets coming up from the mine watch keenly for what may gleam in the process and ao does the en gine driver or the mule man who runs the laden trucks out to the floors and on these floors the regular gangs who unload and break it up find many and large stones and so right through the process there is ample opportunity at every turn I 1 to pick up a stone which is sure to bo worth pounds and may be worth thousands METHODS OF THEFT how to prevent or even check this thieving has axed the best eni bergies of proprietors and police for many years past succeed has not yet appeared for with every new appliance some new form of theft seems to have come into being there are endless means actually adopted swallowing the stones is quite colomon co and at one ti methe thief threw them wrapped in dough to dogs which were killed and cut open by his confederates outside hiding them about the dress and pitching them away to be picked up at night are among the other means from the commencement the method of collecting the stones has be and teady i rather than careful and complete and to the stranger appears to be not only every chance but every temptation for employed emp loyes to steal perpetually th this diamond stealing are far reaching foremost among them stand an unnatural i lowering of prices the possessor odthe stolen stone has paid but lit tie for it and although he will nat aurally endeavor to realize as high a price as he cau he nevertheless greatly undersells under sells the possessor of stones hayo honestly paid all the expenses of production st is estimated hat every year from anc i fifth to one sixth of the stones exported are stolen or in other words something like worth of stolen diamonds leave tho colony annually N V sanday star |