Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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1 AN AN ICA KIMBERLY? } DOW IN 'ARKANSES ReaI)iamonds Mine& in Pike County Where the Slow Trains Run (By C. E. Collins and T. A. Wright.) Comparatively few persons know that diamonds of pure water are mined in Arkaisas. When the Am eriean Legion annual convention was held .in Kansas City and the newly selected commander, Hanford MacNid er, was presented with an "Arkansas diamond" by former Governor Charles H. Brough, of Arkansas, many of. thte delegates imagined it was all a joke, and one newspaper ridiculed the idea that real diamonds were found in Arkansas. But the diamond that was given to Commander MacNider equals in color, brilliancy and hardness any ,amond that comes from the great *Vnines of South Africa. And it was C' mined in Pike County, Arkansas. It is related that the children of early. Dutch settlers in South Africa played with diamonds as they :night have clone with valueless pretty bright stones before the first diamond was identifi:d as such in 1809. The dis covery that the "pretty stones" really were diamdnds was made by accident In like manner, the first diamond found in Arkansag-15 years ago was picked up and kept metely as a 'pretty stone..' John W. Iuddlestone, a f rmer, made the find. He picked up a tone in his field one day but had no idea of its worth. He had formed a habit of collecting odd crystals and various specimens of minerals with which the neighborhood abounds. But the stone that he found on this particqlar occa sion was so different from any he ever had seen and gave such sharp glints of light that he decided to take it to Murfreesboro the next time ho went to see if someone there could identify it. Several days later, rid ing toward Murfreesboro o na mule, . he noticed aonther stone alongside the road which appeared much like the one had iir his pocket. He dismount ed and picked it up. With the toe o his boot, he kicked at a small pile of pebbles and uncovered another one. He took the three to a bank in Mur free oro. None of the officials knew wha the stones were although one of the men did admire the larger one enough that he offered Huddlestone 50 cents for it. Huddlestone declined to part with it, saying he wouli rath er break it up and see if he could not identify it. Standing in the little group of men in the bank that day was Judge J. C. Pinnix, circuit judge in the district of which Pike County is a part. "Why don't you send them to a good Jeweler and see what he says about them?" suggested Judge Pinnix. So Iluddlestone proceeded at once to wrap up the stones and send them i.to Charles S. Stifft in Little Rock. The three stones were immediately recognized as diamonds by Mr. Stifft. But to get other opinions ,he forward ed the specimen to a firm of diamond importers of New York, had them in spected by Dr. George F. Kunz, recog nized as one of the authorities in Am erica on precious stones, vice-presi dent anad diamond expert for Tiff any's and also gem expert for the United States Geological Survey. The stones were pronounced diamonds and the experts declared that they ap peared to be as hard and as brilliant as the average African diamond in the rough.. Dr. Kunz was not especially moved by the news of the discovery. He pointed out that diamonds. had been foun din several states in America, by single stones, and these were accounted for as "stray stones," the theory being that they had been left after the shifting of glaciers thousands of years ago. .1e so in formed, the Little Rock jeiveler, dlis couraging any extravagant hopes un til a thorough investigation might be made. On learning,' however, that the stones had been found in groundl apparently of volcanic origin or na ture, Dr. Kunz made a special trip to the Arkansas field and was greatly impressed with the fact that it up peared to have diamonds "in place" in their native peidiotite. It was expJla ined that d ijm ondrs wecre found in two locales, those oif volcanic origin being found only in a blue earth called peridotite. Carbon at intense heat, it is sup~posed, is sub) jectedl to tremendous priessure andl suiddenily cooled by the influx of water, probably in volca nic uphaeval. The other~ locale of dIiamonds in quan tity are certain river beds hut it never bus beent definitely dleternined just how they got there. The search for information that imight throw light on the Arkansas field brought out thme fact that many years before, State Geologist Branner in an oficial report, had called atten tion to thc presence in Pike County of perido(tite similar~ to that found in the South A frican dliamifond~ fields. But while diamonds "in place" alwvays are found in this volcanic peridotite, does not followv that all peridotite contains dianmonds. The e-rntrary isi the rule, more volcanic "nipea'' con taining non-diamond peridlotite than otherwvise. In any event, thme Branner report dlid not creat, any interest and no one ever thought of prospecting Mothe r-To-Be, Read This Ilera Is a woniderfual nzi.4nJ g to ail ex - pectant znoi hersi. whein the ittleo Onie ar iiy u, li lir i ve iiat h amoinet imore. free .An enainenat - phiia n , expert in this sienceii h as shown tioa way. Ii ws hei whoii first p~ros ' otiier' I' riatnd.' Mr~ C. J. liiarinitnan, Sc run ton, Pu.,tonyor theyhn dtoontaininr- g C imoin 2nents, but with my las Mothr'sFrintiandhadotly a FinrJo Mot hdanro a~t ny ntlan mtand. erao ,aInaot,"otrsF. for 4lpmons sthere .,atogg)N npny prospoted for gs unm silver ad, other minerals in that region. MeareWhile, additional finds of dia monds were being reported and the experts were convinced. that Pike County contained a real diamond "pipe." There was no way of deter mining if the stones existed in paying quantities except by developing the jpkdand mining, under the conditions was an expensive undertaking. With' the prospects seemingly .very good, good, however, a small company wih $25,000. capital was organized under the 'name, ,'The Arkansas Diamond Mining Company." In it were Mr. Stifft, the Little Rock jeweler; Sam W. Rayburn, then president of a bank i nLittle Rock but. now generela manager of Lord and Taylor in New York; A. D. Cohn ,depdrtment store owner in Little Rock, and J. C. Pinnix, the circuit judge of Pike County. The little company gave Farmer Huddlestone $35,000 for his farm much more than its ordinary worth after informing Huddlestone of plans which entailed. the prospective sink ing of a considerable sum of money with the chance of no returns. Hud dlestone relinquished ownership with the understan('ing that he could re main upon the property aird that he would be given employment with the company. Progress in development of the property was very slow. It was al most impossible to convince even a limited number of Arkansans that real diamonds were to be found in the state and that there were even re mote possibilities in the Pike County field. Work was undertake nin a crude way, however, bejng confined to "surface scratching" and use of the crudest sort of washing machines. And diamonds continued to be found. English capital became interested in the "find" a short time after the company was a going concern. The firm of Lewis and Marks of London, owners and financiers of the Roberts Victor Mine in South Africa, also of the. Veerspoed Mine which afterward was sold to the DeBeers syndicate, sent representatives to America to in vestigate and make a report dealing with the new field. Harry D. Lewis, son of the head o fthe firm, and B. Oppenheimer, their diamond expert, who afterward was created a baronet by the British Government, were se lected for the mission. The two men visited Arkansas and were so impressed with conditions as they found them that they expressed a wishi to take half the capital stock of the company, which at that time had increased its cafital to $1,000,000. The prospects gave the company re newed hope and the capitalization was further increased to $1,250,000. It was arranged that representatives should go to England for a conference with the English syndicate and Messrs. Stifft, Rayburn and Cohn were soon afterward in London. It was impossible to close a deal, how ever. The London concern insisted upon a controlling interest in the company which the Arkansans de clined to give and the three officials returned empty-handed. Lacking the capital for the purchase of adequate machinery and rapid de velopment work, the project went along with little change for several years. Two years ago, eastern cap ital became interested, and a holding company for the "Arkansas Diamond Corporation" was formed. It became possible then to buy machinery. The naking of this linked with the dif liculties of getting materials to theb new field, then almost in the wilds or Arkanssa, held up operations until last fall, when the new machines fin ally were in place, and operations were begun under modern methods. Much of the work now being done in the Arkansas field, aside from the mere recovery of the gems, iS of a test nature. As yet it is not known howv many carats pec' load nor wi ahjt the exact cost of getting stones will be. It is not possible to ascertain until later the average cost per carat nor the average size, coloL andl vailue of thenm. It has been deternined. ho wever, that the field in Pike County embraces 6i 2aeres. Compared( wvith the Premier field of 80 acres in Afri ca, the Arkansas "pipe" is the, second largest in the world. In the matter of quality, the' Aikan sas dliamnonds ar'e said to everage, in the higher grade(s, even better than the output. of most of' the South A f rican mnines. The first lot sold brought, an av'erage of $120 per carat, ai much betteri price t han those not familiar with the handling of din mondls might understand. The low gradle stones used for manmtufaturminit and mechanical purposes ran'we ais low as $4 a carat at the mine and] from that low figure diamondfs range uipwarid in wor'th accohidi ng to colori, hai'dness, and perfection. Th'~ere is, SEES SERIES FRID James P. Hou, a St. Louis sale. mate, was given -a- coaiphete- he tRIp to see the .World Se-ries gaae 'by Pres. Ban 'Johnson of thmc A.mt League, Hion explained ioWitt, a Yank player, was knocked urneso scious in a final St. Louis ga'nse when in running ha stepped on the neck of g pop bottk, which Bew iv hitting hiim in the head. Queer Feelings "Some time ago, I was very Irre ular," writes Mrs. Cora Roble, of Pikeville, Ky. "I suffered a great deal, and knew I must do something for this condition. I suffered mostly with my back and a weakness in my limbs. I would have dread ful headaches. I had hot flishes -and very queer feelings, and oh, how my head hurt! 1 read of YCARDUI The Woman's TonIc and of others, who seemed to have the same troubles I had, being benefited, so I began to use it. 1 found it most bene ficial. I took several bottles . ... and was made so much better I didn't have any more trouble of this kind. It reg ulated me." Cardul has~ been found very helpful in the correction of many cases of painful female dis orders, such- as Mrs. Rebie mentions above. If you suffer as she did, take Cardul-a purely vegetable, medicinal tonic, in use for more than 40 years. It should help you. Sold Everywhere. E E9 however, a large margin between ihe mine value and the retail value, or between the rough diamond arind the cut gem, but it is easily accounted for. A diamond in the rought may lose two-thirds in cutting. A nix-carat stone in the rough may not produce more thani a two-carat cut diamond. The cost of cutting and polishing is one big alitional charge in getting the final marketable gem. South African diamonds in the rough and subjected to a tax that ranges from 36 to 60 per cent. The rough stones are sent to London where the great diamond syndicate handles them. There is a charge for sortinjg and selling. The stones are divided into "parcels" in London and are sold to the cutters, only a selected few of whom are allowed to buy. The syndicate needs no salesmen. The cutters in Amsterdam, Antwerp and New York are notified by telegraph or cable that parcels of diamonds await them. The buyer goes to the seller-not the seller to the buyer. The buyer cannot haggle over pricer. Nor can he pick and choose. He can not reject some of the stones in a par cel an.1 have them replaced with oth ers. He must take the parcel allotted to him or go without. It may be, and usually so happens, that all diamonds in a given package or parcel are not suitable to the buyer's trade. He must take them nevertheless, and sell what he does not want to other cutters not on the syndicate's list of buyers. The buyers of the parcels almost in variably are cutters who make a busi ness of converting the rough stones into cut and polished gems. The stones which are brought into Ameri ca bear a duty of 10 per cent. if in the rough ,or 20 per cent if cut and polished. From the cutter, they go to the broker and the jobber, then to the manufactuing jeweler and fronm him to the wvholesaler or the retailer andi then to the individual. F~rom the time the diamondI leaves the mine in Africa until it gets to the buyer, whether by way of Londlon andl Ant wverp) or Amsterdam or Newv York, every process and every change in hands(1 eanils add~ed cost and p-ofits so, that the mine value of the stones is but a small portion of the eventual p~rice paid for them. The Arkansas mine now has a ca pacity of from 300o to 500 I oads a (lay, this to he increasedl gradiully t(i5,000 loads a dlay, ifC preseint work is satia factory'. Thew results in handling the peridoti te alIreadiy dIis inategrated have proved very satisftactory but in a measure they are aside from what is expectedl in the hard peridlotite. UJp to the time the new machinery was in stalledl ,the Arkansas fieldI had yieldled 2,000 good diiamondls.--The i)earbor'n Ind~ependlent. AMEIIlCAN LEGION AFF'AlRS 01" SOUTIl'I CARO0LINA (By IBei Adams, Charleston, S. C.) 'This 01 heIa a busy wveek for the American L egion in South Carolina. Ma ny of the josts in the State are planning to observe the almiversary of the rigning of the armistice. As November I I falls on Saturday some of the posts will hold their exercises on Friday, wvh ile others will observe Saturday and still others will hold exercises Sunday. Aiken Post, No. 26, held a smoker Monday, which w; s the largest number of veterans w;ho have been hejre hadl the largest, attendiance of any post funaction ini the past two years. Post Conmmandler' litnry S. JIohn son presidIed. Sinmce Mr. JTohna son's election the post has taken ont new*~ life, andi promlises to come st rong next year, wvhent an etfort wvillI le mtade to capture thte comt matnder's cup, given ainnually for the- po(st showing the largest petr Burns and bruises? *MENTHOL ATUM cools and 1eals. centage :-of increases over the pro vious year. At the meeting the Aiken Post made plans for a memorial service to be hold next Sunday. Mr. Morris C. Lumpkin, past State commander, and chairman of the Speakers' Bu reau, will deliver an address. The services will be held in the opera house and Post Commander Johnson will preside. The second annual Educational week of the American Legion will be held December 3 to 9. Posts should take an active interest in the observation of this undertaking. Education is so'mething in which all Legion men are expected to in terested. Post commanders should appoint committees and have some kind of program arranged. Tle Newberry Post will hold its annual meeting Monday night. At that. time officers will be chosen for 1923 and othler matters of im portance taken up. Mr. Felix T. Wilson commander of Wilbur Jones Post at lake City advises that this will be a busy week with the Lake City Legion men, Monday evening Col. J. Mon roe Johnson, of Marion, will make an address at the semi-monthly meeting, Friday evening the post will observe the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice. Ben Adams of Charleston, publicity director for the.department of South Carolina, has been invited to speak. ALL THE CA\NOIATC ARE T'RY/N G I ) -ro SAY - NOTIN6 us T"-. MO-r 4 v O Reason Enough "She swears she has never been kissed." "Maybe that's why she swears." I's-st, Just Like That Jack Spratt set the meter back, His wife talked on serene, Between the two he touched a screw Seven does were rushed to the scene. Lazzy Larry Speaking of our lazy men, Larry is the laziest we've found. lie stands an dwaits in the revolving (oolr, For someone to push him around. Far, Far Away A Kentucky lad's enlistment in,,the navy expired. A friend gob asked him what he thought of the sea. ".Just this much," he said. "I'm going to put an oar over my shoulder and start walking inland---and I'm going to keep on walking and walking and walking until someone stops mc and asks, 'What's that thing you've got over your shoulder,' then I'm go ing to settle right down there until I D-I-E." "Ihey, the baby wants its bottle." "Takes after its father, oh ?" Didn't lHe Know A young theologian named Fiddle, Refused to accep~t his dlegree; Tlhe answer is surely no riddle, Ie wr's loath to be Fiddle D). D. SOME POETRY Sonie sh ipep rs arec sorry Anad have reasons to be blue, For they are forced to ship Over the Sou. Other shippers arc not, particular Whether the dlestination he hell, As they are, likely to shipi Over the S. A. L. (Nowv Listen) You can tell it around ndl tel it well, That they can ship with safety Over the A. C. L. A word to the the farmer boy, Who heardl of .Jeweb too, And rallieu a round the A. C. L. WVho un furled the( Royal Blue. Nowv boys wvhen you do your work Use bramis anad let it he Not, just thrown t oget her, Like thie poor~ old( C of Georgia. A ad when you go to fix it, si it goodl anad strong Gor t he Gomipers arme watchling around Somne way to dou you wvrong. A'nd when you marry, andl take (hat bridal tour Negotiate wvithI the Coast Li ne, Anad she wvill take you th ru. Author: TI. IH. McFadden. FOOTH'IA 1.L CHlA.\lPIONS TO, HIATlTLE AT FAIR Orangeburg, S. C., Nov. 3rd, 1922: Tlhe great foout ballI ganme hetween Ca rolina Un iver~si ty anad thie Ci tadeci, which heretofore, has bee(n the ani nunaI Thanksgivintg Foo'.ball event of lie State, wvill lie playedl thiis year :~t the Orangeburg County Fair, No-. vemb er 1 6th. P'residlent W. D). Melto'i of the Uni.. ve'rsity of South Carolina, in a letter to Secre'tary Hiughes of the Orange burg County Fair, accepts the in ita (ion in behalf of the faculty nad stu de(nt biody, to be0 present at the game, andl~ it is ex pected at least 2,000 pe'o plo from Columbinal haib in n,.ang burg the day o ftho big game, as well as large delegation from Char leston. Dinner will be served on the grounds for the officials and students of the two colleges and preparations are being made for their entertain ment while in Orangeburg. With Orangeburg i'air a little more than a week off, Orangeburg is alive as to the big annual exposition, and nothing is being left undone by the citizens of Orangeburg to make this the greatest fair in the history of the Association. Buy the b Colull Diy Ba1 More Columbia Batte United States than al bined, because Columbias have been scale considerably ion battery They have over 30 y< turing skill and impr them Every improvement o developed in the Colu The Columbia "Hot cessful assembly of dr, And again Columbi leadership through ti new Steel Case "1Hot & Wh'erevcr a dry batte will always give the be For sale right Hardware Stores General Stores Gara Look for the na Dry Ba1. I EAGLE "MIKADO" For Sale at your Dealer ASK FOR THE YELLOW P EAGLE EAGLE PENCIL CO How the B the F4 You, the Farmer, arc ducer of wealth. But b, money for your crops mai The crops must be sown, reaped and SOLD! The Bank is your' F3 carry you over the week planting and p)rofiting se; p)urchase seed, fertilizer, In times of stress it helps you weather the sta Are YOU getting al bank offers farmers? Learn how we can I information from our pleased to tell you more a Home Bank CHARLTON: T. M. WELLS, Page Seven Workmen are busy at the fair grounds erecting additional seats and putting everything in order for the event. Entries are pouring into the Secretary's office from every section and every department will be filled to overflowing. FORMER SENATOR DEAD Hartford, Conn., Nov. 7.-Former Senator Morgan Buckley (lied here last Aight. !f, S t -st!. nbia ateries they last longer ries are used in the other makes corn manufactured on a large g r .m any other dry ars of battery manufac ved equipment behind F any account has been mbia laboratories Shot" was the first suc cells in one package has demonstrated its 1s development of the hot" Battery ry is needed, Columbia st service near you by Electricians Implement Stores es me Columbia - they last longer Pencil No.174 Made in five grades ENCIL WITH THE RED BAND MIKADO MPANY, NEW YORK aink Serves irmer. Amer'ica's greatest pr'o afore YOU receive the 1y months usually elapse. mrust be0 fer'tihized, tilled, 'iend( because it helps to a andl months between isons. It permits you to machinery, on credit. stands behind you and rm. the benefits wvhich the Lellp YOU. Ask for full fficials. They will be bout our service. & T rust Co. )uRANT, President Cashier