CELEBRATED DIAMONDS 101
in
his hand for a few seconds, he walked on toward the office of the
company near by and entering, handed the stone to General Manager
McHardy who, with the president, Mr. T. M. Cullinan, sat at a table
inspecting the day's yield of diamonds. For a few minutes the men
stared at it and each other in silence. Familiar as they were with
diamonds, they did not realize at once the importance of that
fist-size lump of glitter. In that stone lay the whole capital stock of
the company three times over. It meant fortunes to them and to the men
in London who had backed the enterprise with their money, for it would
give stimulus to the venture and raise the mine in the estimation of
the world to the level of the De Beers and Kimberley. That unexpected
stone was to teach the lords of the diamond world that another had
arisen who would surely enter the cabinet that ruled.
Soon,
to all parts of the world the message went, that back in the heart of
Africa in the new mine of the Transvaal, a diamond had been found four
times as large as the boast of ancient India; more than three times the
size of Excelsior, the wonder of the modern world. Newspapers all over
the world told the facts and filled out the columns with imagination.
Writers vied with each other in estimating the value of the colossal
gem. Four million dollars was the lowest figure; one hundred million,
said some.
The
diamond was found to weigh 3025-3/4 carats, or nearly twenty ounces
troy and measured 4x2-1/2x1-1/2 inches. It was taken to Pretoria and
from there to Johannesburg, where it was deposited in the Standard
Bank. While there it was submitted to the examination of scientists and
exhibited to the public for some days.
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