south African diamonds (Continued)
stands
the name of Cecil John Rhodes. He was born in 1853, the son of an
Oxford clergyman, and went to South Africa as a young man. He was a
fine figure of a man, tall and well-built, with blue eyes and curly
blond hair, possessing a fearlessness, a knack of leadership and an
intense patriotism which were to make him an idol among his countrymen.
He went to work as a digger in the fields, sharing the hardships and
pleasures of that rough, motley crew—but always with an eye toward
buying out his neighbors' claims and building toward greater financial
strength.
Another
man was doing the same thing at the same time. This was Barnett Isaac
who styled himself "Barney Barnato". Grandson of a Jewish rabbi, he was
the opposite of Rhodes in background and training, and he possessed
the shrewdness and foresight for which his race is famous. It was
inevitable that these two men should come to grips; and their rivalry
was the talk of the fields for some time. Finally, one memorable July
night in 1889, Rhodes' company (the DeBeer Consolidated) bought out the
Kimberley Central (Barnato's) for the staggering sum of twenty-five
million dollars, paid with a single check, and Rhodes was master of the
diamond region.
Rhodes
had early employed many American engineers to develop the system of
mining. For this he received sharp criticism from many of his
countrymen. But he was convinced that "Yankee" ingenuity could help to
conquer the difficult engineering problems which arose in mining out
the great pipes. His right hand man was Gardner F.
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