A LUCKY GAME

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22271, 9 December 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

A LUCKY GAME

How a Diamond Fiei<| , Was Found ' A boy’s game with pebbles years ago resulted in the discovery of one of the richest diamond fielflt in South Africa. A nine-year-old boy, Schalk von Nikkei, was playing far out on the veldt with Hottentot children- He had invented a game to bfeplayrf with pebbles and taught it to them. In the evening, his father down to fetch him and noticed what a peculiar glow the stones fleeted in the setting sun. He amined one of the stones carefuSp and, although he thought it to .«R an ordinary pebble, he decided M have it examined by an The little finder himself took'J* stone to tlie city and came ning home, saying, “Father, it diamond!" ‘"-a It was not just one diamondnjP' the boy held in his hand, but large number cf them which non** brought home to play the new with. The “pebbles” he had collecting for the last now represented an enormous tune. The same evening. Andress vw Nikkei, the boy’s father, ord*rw his negroes to collect all the p«»W on his land. A few days later. Hottentot who had heard of interest in pebbles, came to w® and offered him a bagful-*. Nikkei examined them cam»w and gdve him 15 oxen, seven and 50 sheep in exchange. _ Among the stones there. ®jjf fabulous diamonds. The later known as tiie Cross,” was sold the next day. ™ £15,000. .-a A real diamond fever now sprp": over the area, and people flSj-SJj to South Africa. The the von Nikkels proved fo." 6 , ■ of the richest diamond fields.