De Beers

“ Again, one moment he might be talking of De Beers business, involving huge sums of money, the next discussing the progress of his thirty fruit-farms in the Drakenstein district, where he had no fewer than 100,000 fruit-trees; another time his horse-breeding establishment at Kimberley was engaging his attention, or, nearer home, the road-making and improvements at Groot Schuurr, where he even knew the wages paid to the 200 Cape boys he was then employing. Mr. Rhodes was always in favour of doing things on a large scale, made easy, certainly, by his millionaire's purse. ”

“ If that happens, I shall not have served twelve months of my sentence before the markets of the world will be flooded with diamonds such as the mines of Kimberley never have produced and never will. They shall be so cheap that every servant girl shall be able to blaze with them if she likes, and when they are as cheap as, or cheaper than, their imitations, I fancy you will find the monopoly of De Beers as unsaleable a commodity as the diamonds which it then won't pay to produce. ”

“ Not any mere human being. The rose-pink idol rustling in its silken nest was a different thing altogether. Unfortunately she knew that belonged to De Beers, and she dared not openly wear it. But surely this chain...
Well! if you dally with temptation long enough, temptation always wins, especially when aided and abetted by a thousand little lovely, glittering, dancing, scintillating spirits of light and colour.
Needless to say Loree went downstairs with the chain round her neck: and though her heart was trembling with its own audacity she walked like a queen. ”

“ Its miasma penetrates everywhere, and protected as is the industry by the most severe and brutal—nay, even degrading—laws and restrictions, which an all-powerful “ring” has been able to force through the Cape Parliament, no man is absolutely safe from it. And, even Frank, an employé of the great De Beers Company itself, a servant of proved integrity and some service, might well hesitate before exposing himself to the tremendous difficulty of proving a strong and valid title to the stone in his possession.
“Well, Frank,” said Staarbrucker, “have you made up your mind about your diamond? ”

“ In the days when old Micky Solano made his money diamonds could be found lying about the streets here in Kimberley, or bought at every street corner from the niggers who stole them.”
“But how could the niggers steal them?”
“Well, you see, nowadays, De Beers have the system of watching and searching brought to a fine art; boys who are working in the mines are absolutely isolated from the rest of the world in Compounds for six months or so at a time ”

“ This only tended to make the men anxious to try conclusions with the Boers—or, better still, the foreign officers who, it was supposed, directed operations "from behind, when there was any fighting," like the Duke of Plaza Tora in the play.
The De Beers Corporation continued with untiring energy to do what in them lay for the further protection of the town, and on Monday offered to provide the military with a thousand horses. The offer was gladly accepted. It was decided to form a mounted corps of men who could ride well and shoot straight. ”

“ A fitting and interesting finish to an examination of the tedious and laborious and costly processes whereby the diamonds are gotten out of the deeps of the earth and freed from the base stuffs which imprison them is the visit to the De Beers offices in the town of Kimberley, where the result of each day's mining is brought every day, and, weighed, assorted, valued, and deposited in safes against shipping-day. An unknown and unaccredited person cannot, get into that place ”

“ A house to house visit was inaugurated by the police—the sequel to which was the lodgment of some twenty persons within the solid masonry of the gaol. The most prominent of the prisoners was one employed as a guard in the mines. De Beers had always been credited with a desire to observe strict impartiality in their choice of servants, and the prisoner had hit upon a curious way of demonstrating his appreciation of such a policy. Ever since they had learned to handle an assegai the pugnacious natives shut up in the compounds had been spoiling for a fight ”

“ Frank Ridley and Joshua Mosenstein watched the millionaire's changing face narrowly as he read. When they saw that he had finished, Ridley said quietly:
"I can find that kaffir if necessary, Mr. Mosenstein. Of course, the Diamond Law does not hold good in this country, but the laws as to conspiracy and dealing in stolen goods do. If De Beers prosecuted, they would find my evidence worth buying. Jossey here has done his time, and could make a clean breast of it without fear; and so the only one who could be touched would be—"
"Oh, that'll do!" ”

“ Some years ago, in a mine not owned by the De Beers, a black found what has been claimed to be the largest diamond known to the world’s history; and, as a reward he was released from service and given a blanket, a horse, and five hundred dollars. It made him a Vanderbilt. He could buy four wives, and have money left. Four wives are an ample support for a native. With four wives he is wholly independent, and need never do a stroke of work again. ”

“ In Berlin some of the restaurants will serve beer only to people who can get chairs, but this does not faze the clever Berliners, and when they want their beer they bring camp stools with them, and then they are sure to have a seat. It is forbidden to make certain kinds of fine beers because they take too much malt and sugar. None of the beer is as good as in times of peace, but the Germans have forgotten the delicacies of the past, and they live in the food ideals of the present, and they smack their lips and say, "Isn't the beer fine to-night?" ”

“ The production of Great Britain increased from 7,670,100 barrels in 1830 to 25,336,811 barrels in 1870. It consists chiefly of the ancient amber-colored ale and the modern dark-brown porter. The Belgian beers are the mars, a thin beer; the lambic, a strong and light-colored drink; and the faro, which the retailer himself prepares by mixing the other two kinds. The production of France has more than doubled since 1842. A strong lager-beer and a weaker small-beer are most in favor, and the foreign beers are in common use. ”

“ Indulgence in liquor and tobacco tell on the wind and muscle, especially in America. The nut-brown ale of England, home-brewed in inns historical, is a different thing to the bottled trash and barrelled bitterness imported or made and sold in Canada. The less we know of their taste the better. We can only recall to mind one or two instances where players "finished off" after practice by a spree ”

“ They began to hop their mild beer more and the Publican started three, four, sometimes six butts at once, but so little idea had the brewer or his customers incurring the charge of great stocks of beer, that some moneyed people made a trade of purchasing their hopped beers at the first hand, keeping them sometime and when stale to dispose of the same to Publicans for 5/- per barrel and 6/- per barrel. Our tastes but slowly alter or reform. ”

“ Major Von Beers
Acknowledged no betters and precious few peers.
[41] And every one envied his well-earned repute
For arson and pillage and rapine and loot.
No symphony held such delectable tones
For the ears of Von Beers as the shrieks and the groans
Of women and children bombarded with shell,
Or the crash of a hospital tumbling pell-mell.
One day from Berlin came the order “Refrain
For the present from Frightfulness. Start Press Campaign.
Von Bernstorff has wired we’re getting in wrong
With the Yankees, so play up HUMANITY strong.”
Loud, loud were the wailings of Hofbrau Von Beers. ”

“ Van Beers's historical poems, the principal of which is, perhaps, Jakob Van Maerlant (Amsterdam, 1860) , helped the Flemish revival in Belgium as powerfully as his school-books. He is best known, however, as the writer of ballads and songs. Jongelingsdroomen (“A Young Man’s Dreams”) first appeared at Antwerp and Amsterdam in 1853. ”

“ In a word, the trained sagacity and untiring caution of an Indian were all he had to rely on amid the critical risks he unavoidably ran.
"Is the rock empty, Judith?" inquired Deerslayer, as soon as he had checked the drift of the ark, deeming it imprudent to venture unnecessarily near. "Is any thing to be seen of the Delaware chief?"
"Nothing, Deerslayer. Neither rock, shore, tree, nor lake seems to have ever held a human form." ”

“ It is entirely for their wealth that brewers have been ennobled in England, never because of their services as captains of a great industry. Indeed, these services have been typically poor. While these men were earning their peerages by the sort of proceedings that do secure men peerages under the British Crown, the German brewers were developing the art and science of brewing with remarkable energy and success. The Germans and Bohemians can now make light beers that the English brewers cannot even imitate; they are exporting beer to England in steadily increasing volume. ”

“ The wind circulates among the ruins, and their innumerable crevices become so many tubes, which heave a thousand sighs. Long grasses wave in the apertures of the domes, and beyond these apertures you behold the flitting clouds and the soaring sea-eagle. ”

“ A general attack now ensued, and the inmates of the chain of forts had a sleepless time, and a terrible fate in view; but "Britons, you know," said a letter from Detroit, "never shrink. We always appeared gay to spite the rascals." ”

“ Deerslayer was interrupted by a slight exclamation from the girl, who, in obedience to his hurried gestures, as much as in obedience to his words, had immediately bent her looks again in the opposite direction.
"What is't?—what is't, Judith?" he hastily demanded. "Is any thing to be seen?"
"There is a man on the rock!—an Indian warrior in his paint, and armed!"
"Where does he wear his hawk's feather?" eagerly added Deerslayer, relaxing his hold of the line, in readiness to drift nearer to the place of rendezvous. "Is it fast to the warlock, or does he carry it above the left ear?" ”

“ Beers is a very clever man over the high hurdles, but if, as it seems, he becomes affected by the prowess of an opponent, he should strive mightily to overcome this weakness. He has frequently covered the distance in better than Bien's winning time. In the low hurdles Beers met Bien in the trials, and ran second ”

“ There is an old woman who has been in the college kitchen twenty years, and in all this time done nothing but make pies. We have them Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; the worst of it is we can only get one piece. I have fared rather better than the rest generally, for Durant seldom eats pie, and most always sends me his piece.” Then there was the round of study and recitation: Livy in the morning, mathematics at eleven, and Roman antiquities at four. “At recitation I have one of the descendants of the Dutch settlers in New York on each side of me. ”

“ And her tears were thick on the tasselled corn,
On the spider's web and the sweet hawthorn.
Heavenward going, the ravished mist
Still wept as she vanished, and softly kissed
Each living thing on the valley-side,
With the last good-bye of the mountain-bride. ”

“ The visit of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales to Canada, in 1861, and a proposal to play before him, infused new life into the ancient Indian sport, and a grand match was played in the presence of H. R. H. by the "Montreal" and "Beaver" vs. Caughnawaga and St. Regis Indians, twenty-five players a side. The playing on both sides was determined and excited, and ended in a dispute,—Baptiste, of Caughnawaga, the Indian Captain, having picked up and held the ball with his hand, at a moment when the whites had a clear chance of carrying it into the Indian goal. The match was awarded to the whites. ”

“ Stopping beside some sparkling spring to lunch and dine, chatting gayly all day, growing thoughtful and silent, as, borne upon the breeze of evening, there came to us the whispering voices of memory, renewing the sorrow of parting, awakening afresh anxious fears for the absent. ”

“ At this movement the little hand tightened in his clasp, a faint sigh breathed from his lips, and opening the great eyes wearily, General Frankie whispered, "Mamma," and smiled his old beloved smile. Dr. Dolsen rose and wiped away the tears that rolled down his cheeks, and his voice was choked as he said, "Thank God, our General is safe!" The golden ladder had mounted up and faded out, for no angel footstep would tread its shimmering bars heavenward to-night. ”

“ Bear to them our loving message,
In thy sweet unwritten speech;
Chime, white bells, above them softly,
Echoes only angels teach.
Tell them, Roses, as you wither,
Tho' their dust shall heed you not ”

“ Its sinless love and sands of gold.
Tell me what lies beyond the blue,
And what the whirling star-worlds do?
⁠Is there no jasper wall in sight,
⁠Whose turrets catch thy silver light,
With gates where weary souls go through? ”

“ Never more as I do now?
Tell me then, O elfin legend,
Where to gather, when, and how.
Must I go for it at midnight,
When the witches gather fast?
Must I walk alone, and backward,
Till the mystic leaf is passed? ”

“ An eye—a soul—or ill or good;
⁠Demon, or angel mystery.
Mentor or siren, friend or foe,
⁠The wily tongue may weave its spell;
But there outlooking stands the soul,
⁠A steadfast tale of truth to tell. ”

“ His musket falls slack - his face, dark and grim,
grows gentle with memories tender,
as he mutters a prayer for the children asleep,
and their mother - "May Heaven defend her."
All quiet along the Potomac tonight.
Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes,
he dashes off the tears that are welling:
and gathers his gun close to his breast
as if to keep down the hearts swelling. ”