Chapter Eleven.
So interesting and novel was the life at the fields, that although in many respects our surroundings and mode of living were rough and primitive, there was a charm about it that atoned for most of its shortcomings.
After much difficulty, soon after our arrival we succeeded in finding a small house, which we rented, as being more comfortable and affording greater privacy than a hotel. We fortunately obtained an excellent housekeeper, a worthy Scotchwoman, whose husband was engaged as overseer in the mine for one of the companies.
Our house contained one large room, with four other very tiny ones opening out of it. The kitchen was, after the manner of South Africa, situated away from the house, at one corner of the large plot of ground which surrounded the house.
The roof and walls were, like its neighbours, of corrugated iron, and a spacious verandah encircled it; a high rush fence which inclosed the compound served to keep out intruders and prevent the curious gaze of any inquisitive passer-by.
Here we led a happy life, with Frank improving in health every day of her existence. Our rent was 125 dollars a month. Wood was 75 dollars a wagon-load: it had been known as high as 200 dollars, but coal, having been found in the immediate vicinity, had been brought into the market by some of the more enterprising of the farmers and had taken the place of wood for fuel in the furnaces.
Edibles were reasonable, considering the place, excepting vegetables. On one occasion when we wished to have a particularly tempting, large cauliflower we paid 2 dollars for it. This did not enter into our menu very often of course, for we decided to like other things not so necessarily expensive, until we two (or three) might find a Koh-i-noor.
There were two cafés, one kept by an American and the other by French people, where one could be served, at a reasonable price, with a meal that could vie in variety, delicacy, and culinary perfection with the first-class restaurants in London or New York. After eating one of these meals it was strange to go out into the crowded thoroughfare and hire a cart and drive four or five miles in a country in which one might imagine one’s self in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Surely one could but say that Kimberley is one of the wonders of the world.
The domestic servants are of a different kind to those working in the mine, who are usually raw Kafirs from the interior. The Kafirs generally remain only long enough to save sufficient money to buy a gun or a few head of cattle and return to their kraals. There they trade off their cattle for a wife, and then she does all the work for her husband, whilst he sits down the remainder of his days and tires himself out in watching her do the work, till the soil, and do everything else, telling her the while pretty stories of his adventures, and how he loves her, she thinking it only an honour to work and slave for such a brave boy as hers!
These Kafirs are continually arriving, coming from long distances, walking sometimes as far as 1,500 miles in the interior; but the household servants are different; they are a heterogeneous mixture of Malays from Cape Town and Kafirs and the imported coolies from Natal. It is difficult to say which makes the worst servant; at any rate, we found, no matter from which race we selected our help, it was never safe to leave anything of value, at all portable, within their reach.
Ladies are quite a rarity on the fields, few of the married diggers of merchants caring to subject their wives to the discomforts of the life and the unreliable domestic help. Consequently they remain at home in Europe or in the more civilised towns of the Cape Colony or Natal. The few married ladies resident on the fields are very social, and helped much toward making our stay a pleasant one.
On the evenings when we were “at home,” the capacity of our one reception-room would be tested to its fullest extent. There was always some subject for conversation, some startling event continually occurring to form a theme for discussion.
Now it was the breaking out of the Basuto War, with the report concerning the regiment of mounted irregulars to be raised in the camp for active service; then again a stone of more than usual size and brilliancy had been discovered; or some illicit diamond buyer had been “trapped” by the detectives. This latter topic was always of absorbing interest to the digger or merchant.
It is the illicit diamond buyer, or as they term it, tout court, I.D.B., who has been the sharpest thorn in the digger’s side. He it is who incites the Kafirs who are employed in the mines to steal, and then secretly buys of them the stolen gems. The temptation to become possessed for 400 dollars of a stone clearly worth 4,000 dollars is very great, and occasionally even a detective is found by his associate to be engaged in the illicit trade. It is illegal to own a diamond unless one is a claim-holder or a licensed buyer. If a private individual wishes to purchase a stone or two for himself, he must first obtain a permit from the authorities.
These precautions will be seen to be necessary, because the value of the diamond, its portability, the facility with which it can be concealed, and the uncertainty regarding its existence make it a source of temptation to dishonesty among all classes. It is therefore against the law for any one, even if a licensed buyer, to purchase a diamond from any one not a claim-holder, unless he can produce his permit.
The law has become so stringent and the detective force so active that terror has stricken the hearts of the I.D.B.s, for it is now a matter of fifteen years’ hard labour to be convicted of buying a stolen diamond. Before this stringent law was passed, many went away rich in a few years who could not have possibly made “their pile” in any legitimate business in that length of time. Men who have been suspected for years, but have managed to evade detection, have been pounced upon by detectives at most unexpected moments; but the temptation is so strong that, despite the penalty, the practice still goes on, but to a smaller extent than before.
It was astonishing to find out how often the culprit turned out to be a man in a good and responsible position, and often the very men who were the loudest in the denunciation of the crime were themselves practising it. We were in a café one evening when there was a sudden hush, followed by a startled buzz of conversation, and we heard the name of a well-known man followed by the word “detectives.” A man standing near who was suspected of carrying on the same trade became suddenly pale and bit uneasily on his cigar, and with a careless laugh said, “Serves him right,” in a tone of voice which spoke louder than words, “What a fool not to be more careful!” Before we left the camp that same man was working in convict dress.
Detectives themselves have been tempted to dabble in the trade, and have been trapped, and are now working in convict dress by the side of the men they have helped to hunt down. This fascinating trade of gems offers great temptations to the weak-willed, and it takes a certain amount of bull-dog courage, combined with caution and patience, to continue in this dangerous business.
On mail days great envelopes of diamonds are sent to London. Some of these packages contain flawless diamonds; others smoky diamonds used in machinery for polishing and cutting the stones; others again would contain stones of all colours, sizes, and purity. One day we handled some packages of spotless gems that the broker had been months collecting; they were beautiful indeed. One package, worth many thousands of dollars, contained yellow diamonds, selected stones in size, colour, and purity. Those of yellow tinge are bought and worn by the East Indians.
The pure white stone is of more value than the yellow because not so plentiful. It is a strange fact that these diamond merchants seldom wear diamond jewellery; they prefer rubies or corals to the too common gem, the diamond.
The famous Porter Rhodes diamond was found, it is said, by one of his overseers. A director of one of the companies called one morning and I opened the door to him; he assured himself that no one could overhear us before handing me an envelope within which lay this great, pure white diamond, which only some millionaire with plenty of ready money can afford to be the possessor of. I felt highly complimented when told I was the first lady who had had the diamond in her hand, and there was no need for wonder at his caution, for no one would care to let it be known he had such a prize about him.
It looks like a large lump of alum with a light like white satin through it, and weighs 150 carats.
Mr Rhodes placed it on exhibition later on for the benefit of the hospital, and 5 dollars admission fee was charged to merely have a peep at it. It made some of the old diggers who had been working for years so sick at heart, that they did not feel like work for a week afterward: It is said that when Mr Porter Rhodes had an audience with Her Majesty, the Queen of England, to exhibit the diamond, he had been told that he must not contradict her. But when she remarked she did not think it as large as the Koh-i-noor, he could not endure that, even from a crowned head, and said: “It is larger!” His pride, however, is not to be wondered at, for I believe Mr Porter Rhodes is the only Mr who can boast of owning one of the few big diamonds in the world.
Some enterprising ladies own Scotch carts, which they send to the wash-ups in which their husbands and brothers are interested, and get the small pebbly refuse that has been hastily looked over at the sorting-table. This is brought to the house and sorted over by them more carefully for the tiny diamonds that have been overlooked in the haste of sorting out larger prizes. A few of the ladies dressed themselves on the money they made at this work.
It tires the back and eyes, to be sure, but not any more than other woman’s work.