This is how Kimberley acquired its name. In 1871 the farm “Vooruitzigt” was proclaimed as a diamond digging. This name was declared by Lord Kimberley, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, to be unpronounceable. Some one then suggested the name “New Rush.” This Lord Kimberley declared to be too suggestive of rowdiness. Some one else then suggested that the town should be called after the Minister. This was adopted, and so the town was christened Kimberley.
Mr. Rhodes was very careless about trifling personal matters. There was a function in connection with the Kimberley Exhibition at which he was taking a leading part. When he arrived at the gates of the Exhibition, he found he had mislaid his pass, and the gatekeeper, not knowing him, refused him admission. Putting his hand into his pocket, Mr. Rhodes enquired the price of admission. “Two shillings,” replied the gatekeeper. Mr. Rhodes then discovered that he hadn’t any money about him. “I am afraid I have left my purse behind,” he said, “but I suppose my watch will do.” He then discovered that he had mislaid his watch also, and told the gatekeeper who he was. That functionary, however, was unconvinced, and it is probable that Mr. Rhodes would not have gained admission to the Exhibition had not some one lent him the required florin. Mr. Rhodes subsequently sent the gatekeeper five pounds as a reward for having so unhesitatingly done his duty.
Mr. Stuart Cumberland, in his book, “What I think of South Africa,” relates the following anecdote about “Barney” Barnato:
“I was a witness,” he says, “of a little joke Barney played upon a very august corporation. He was asked to write upon a form his name, place of residence and occupation. Down went the first, ‘B. I. Barnato,’ then ‘Spencer House,’ but when he came to occupation he hesitated. ‘How shall I describe myself?’ he asked. ‘Gentleman? no, that’s too elastic.’ ‘Dramatic author,’ I meekly suggested. (Barnato was then working at a play with Haddon Chambers). ‘That might do,’ he said, ‘only we should have Haddon Chambers saying I wasn’t, and then how should I stand? I have it—toff.’ And down went ‘toff’ on the paper. Presently the form came back with the enquiry what ‘toff’ meant. ‘Oh,’ replied Barnato, with an imperturbable countenance, ‘that’s the Hebrew for financial gentleman.’”
When the synagogue of the Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation was built, President Kruger was invited to perform the opening ceremony. He accepted the invitation, but the amazement of the hundreds of Israelites present may be imagined when the President announced, in his loudest tones:—“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I declare this building open.”
Mr. Rhodes was very fond of discussing the various points of English politicians, and there was one member of the Gladstone Government of 1892 whom he cordially detested. He told me once, says Sir Lewis Michell, how he found himself seated next him at a dinner-party in London, and was so bored with him that in the middle of one of his arguments on some political problem he turned away from him and began talking to his other neighbour. “It was very rude of me, I know,” he said, “very rude. People who live in London can’t do these things—I can. I can do it on the basis of a barbarian!”