POVERTY TO WEALTH.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 688, 29 November 1921, Page 3

POVERTY TO WEALTH.

DIAMONDS AND TRAGEDY.

Derails which have reached England . * he Ending of the “Arc” diamond in South Africa read like a chapter of romance. St, was christened .the “Arc” from the initials of the three men who combined to purchase it— Mr Allen (Bowden, Cheshire), Mr Russel (Barkley West, South Africa), and Mr Crudgington (Moseley, Birmingham). It weighs 381 carats, uncut. Some weeks ago, says the “Daily Chronice,’* (thuee men, Scheepers, Kaltenbflun, and Smith, set out from the Transvaal diggings for Mpsenberg, where a new find was shortly to be opened. Smith had his wife and little boy with (the paty. A few mil’es out from Barkley West the boy became ill, and forced the payty to cease their trek and camp at Gong-Gong. Whiljs the mother was nursing her child, the men, to filS in their idle (time, went to work digging in the vague hope of picking up some trifle. Matters went from bad, to worse the diggers had no luck, and finally the party were reduced to living on maize meal and little else. In isuch circumstances it is little wonder thajt- the sick child grew steadily worse and died. After the funeral there was no reason for staying in the unlucky and apparently unprofitable camp. Bu(t a chance visitor, a man named Els had pointed out a bit of ground and had strongly advised /the diggers to give it a trial. They decided to follow his advice, and at the end of two days they .weije “into” pot clay, the soil in which diamonds are usually found! Then fortune came to them, literally at a stroke —atf; one stroke of Kaltenbrun’s pick. He tunned up something which he took to be a piece of crystal, something so big that it seemed ridiculous to suppose it could be a diamond. Scheepers was cabled ,to examine it, and although he, too, pronounced a'gansjti it being a real stone, he washed it carefully again. The partners hung over their fin'd, scarcely daringto hope, dazzled by the possibility of a fortune in their hands ; afraid! of the blow >that would follow the decision that the i?(tone was no diamond. But their hopes were well founded. Diggers crowded round ; the stone was examined and re-ex-amined, was pronounced amid wild excitement to be ,-the genuine thing, and worth a fortune. When the news reached Barkley West, the centre of jthe Griqualand, West alluvial diggings., diggers and diamond buyers hurried on horseback and in mol tor cars to Gong-Gong. The diamond! was weighed, and bids began to be made to the ifucky diggers, bids of amounts (that to them appeared fabulous. They kept their heads, and refused to Sell until they could get their find properly valued. It was bought a*; .last by the three men mentioned for a sum which is a secret, bujt which- certainly ran into many thousands. I>. was christened The‘Arc, and has has already taken its place among- the world’s great gems. The diggers are made men,hut the child who was their making lies buried in the quiet little bemetery on the veldt near the spot where his father found- fortune.