Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1892 — Fortunes from Accidents. [ARTICLE]

Fortunes from Accidents.

One O’Reilly, a trader, in casually stopping at the house of a Boer, near Pnetl, Griqualand West, saw some children playing with a number of exceedingly pretty pebbles, aud on asking his Dutch host whether he could take one, he was promptly told that he could do so, as “the children had plenty more of them.” O’Reilly took the stone to Grahamstown and sold it for $3,000; it was resold for $25,000. A Dutchman named Do Beer had built himself the usual wattle and daub on his farm, but it had been erected for quite a long period before some inquiring prospectors found that the rough coat used for the walls actually contained diamonds. The farm speedily changed hands for SIO,OOO. It now, with its neighboring mines, produces ovei $15,000,000 of diamonds annually, the total wealth from this discovery to date being probably over $250,000,000. At Wasselton, a Boer riding out at sundown to bring in his horses froth the veldt, where they had been run. ning all'day, saw a small animal called a “meercat” (it somewhat re> sembles a weasel, and burrows it] colonies like rabbits) industriously scraping some earth from its hole. Some peculiarity of the ground so thrown up led the Dutchman to fill his handkerchief with it, and after lie had stabled his horse, by the dismal light of a small lamp he examined the nature of the earth. To his astonishment and delight he found a three-quarter carat diamond in the sand. Further search at the meercat’s hole revealed other diamonds, and six months ago no less than $2,550,000 was refused for the farm. Since the accidental discovery over 200,000 carats of fine white diamonds have been extracted from the mine.— Tid-Bits.