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THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS
When
a man's contract is about to expire he is sent to a hospital one week
before his departure and thoroughly examined and X-rayed to be sure
that no diamonds are concealed somewhere in his anatomy. This
precaution had to be introduced as a part of the general routine
because so many valuable diamonds disappeared in the past underneath,
human skins. A man would steal a diamond about the size of a nut, cut a
slice in his leg and insert the stone, and then bandage the wound; when
he left the mine he would never have to work again. Others carried them
out in their mouths and ears, and X-ray examinations seemed to suggest
that some swallowed theirs. If a man is caught with, a diamond outside
the mines he is required to break stone on the roads for seven years
without
Pay-One
boy, many years ago, went to his "boas" complaining of a stomach-ache,
and an operation brought forth six diamonds weighing, in all, over
thirty carats.
The
principal diamond mines of South Africa are as follows: The Dutoitspan,
45 acres; the Bultfontein, 35 acres; the DeBeer, 22 acres; the
Kimberley, 33 acres; the Jagersfontein, 24 acres; the Premier, 1,723
acres, the greatest diamond mine in the world; and the Robert's Victor
mine, 500 acres.
The
DeBeer's consolidated has gradually absorbed most of the smaller
companies of the diamond fields in South Africa; and the London
Financiers have organized a marketing agency, the Diamond Corporation,
through which most of the world's diamonds flow to the channels of 52
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