IN THE CAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 17, 20 July 1931, Page 3

IN THE CAGE

DIAMOND THIEVES

HOW NATIVES ARE PUNISHED

Diamonds are full of happiness —and grief. And I am not sure which they bring most often. This is the opinion Thomas Mooney, of Galway, Ireland, and South Africa, who has spent most of his 70 years digging in the wastes of the latter land, for the jewel that has tipped dynasties into the dust and made goddesses of ordinary girls, says the "San Francisco Chronicle." Mr. Mooney was taking a vacation from his lifelong labours under the heavy sun of tropical Africa. "In the early days everything was crude in mining diamonds," he began. "To-day it's different, everything is done scientifically. 1 remember well when I first arrived in Cape Colony, South Africa, back in IS7I. It was many years after diamonds had been discovered there. ,At that time that little place was fast becoming one of great importance. Towns all around it were springing up like mushrooms overnight, and most every nation in the world was represented. In those days the diamond mines were worked quite differently from what they are to-day. All the land was divided up into so many lots and each man would work Ms lot on payment of a fee to the owner. If the lot was a good one and yielded diamonds the man that worked it would be rich, but if the lot was a poor pne the man would be working for nothing. In those days you could go to work in the morning, and if you were lucky by night you would be rich. POUND BY HUNTER. "The first diamonds were discovered in South Africa about 1866 by a hunter and trader named O'Biley. This hunter put up at a certain farmer's house- for the night. All the farmers' houses at that time were made of dry mud and sticks, baked together. During the evening this hunter noticed the farmer 's daughter playing with some shiny stones. He remarked that they were very pretty things to his host, and speculated upon what, they might be, finally offering to buy them. "The farmer said they could not be very valuable or his child would not be playing with them. He also told the trader that: if he would examine the walls of his house to-morrow he might find some more. Sure enough, the hunter went out the next morning and picked about a handful of these precious little stones from the walls, of the farmer's house. Wow, this,hunter was sure.they were valuable, so he immediately struck a bargain with the farmer, and bought them all, under the condition that when he got to London he would have them examined, and if they were valuable he would share with the farmer. ' "On arriving in London, he kept his word, and it turned out that they were diamonds, and, of course, very valuable. O'Riley received' about £5000 for his share. ' ■ "It was not long after this that the news spread around, as it always does when the people start thinking that a fortune is to be had for the digging, and a grand stampede was on for the diamond fields. DIFFERENT NOW. "Some of the newcomers discovered diamonds in shallow streams of water flowing down the mountain side. Then a new search began, that of panning for the jewels. This was much easier than digging for them, and that idea was the means of drawing the gold panners from California to Africa. And, in this new adventure fortunes wore quickly made. Some of these miners arrived.here penniless, and in a short time they would be fabulously rich. "But, all these things have changed now," said Mr. Mooney. "Diamond mining is still carried on, but all the diamond mines are owned by big syndicates now. The only white men there are either foremen or the owners. Working rules in the mines are very strict. For instance, the owners of a mine buy all the land for miles around, and on this they make all their natives live. No stranger is allowed inside this socalled ring- of land under any condition, unless he first undergoes a'strict examination of himself and all of his belongings. "The natives can roam all around .this piece of land as much as they please, but they cannot go outside. They wear no clothes except a white band of cloth around their waist. They change this cloth every.day, and a new one is given to them by the storekeeper of their place. "Before they enter the mine in the morning and again at night they must take a bath, under the eyes of watchful guards. The reason for this," said Mr. Mooney, "is so they will not attempt to hide diamonds on their person. "They are constantly warned about stealing. But every now and then some hapless creature is found trying to smuggle a diamond or two out for himself, and.then his hard luck begins. The offender gets no trial of any kind, but is quickly taken outside his village, and there sixty days' punishment begins. IN THE 'AIR. "First, one of the guards reads the charge to him, so that he clearly understands what he is being punished for. After this ceremony is over, two more guards bring up a big wooden cage, which is about four feet high and two feet wide. "In this the prisoner is locked, and then he is given a loaf of bread as his meal for that day. And that is all he gets, not even a cup of water. Then a rope is attached to the top of the cage, and the whole thing is hoisted up in the air, and there the prisoner stays for sixty days, if it is his first offence. If he has been caught before, lie will stay up there anywhere from sixty days to a year, day in and day out, night in and night out, in the hot sun of the midday he will almost roast. "Once a day he is let down by the guards and given something to eat and drink, for after the first day he can have water. After he is fed he is again hoisted up in the zir until the next day. He will not be let out of the cage from the time he is put in till his time is up. "When the day of his freedom arrives ho is once more at liberty to go back to work with a sound warning of the cage should he offend again. But these natives are ifourageous thieves, and no matter how much they have been punished for stealing, they will do the same thing again when the opportunity presents itself." "It is only the lazy ones that steaL And they do not steal, thinking to get away with anything, either. As a rule, a native has a wife and children. Sometimes he has two or three wives. When a native takes a wife, sometimes all the wife's relatives are included in the family. He has to provide for those who won't or who can't work. AVOIDS WORK. "A native is bright enough to know that while he is in prison the owners of the mine must take care of his people. While he is confined in his cage at the top of the pole ho has nothing to do or think of but eat, sleep, and rest in whatever comfort he can find. .If the management fired a native every time one was caught stealing it would not be long before the company would have no one to work the mines, and, as they generally retrieve all the diamonds the natives try to steal, they lose nothing in the end by this policy. "On rare occasions natives do manager to smuggle out one or two

small diamonds.. They make all haste for the big settlements to dispose of them to crooked diamond dealers, who cheat them unmercifully; scarcely do the natives get one-tenth of the market value of their loot. "The crooked deals betray the thief always. After buying the diamonds for a song they get in touch with the mines and tell them they are willing to 'return the diamonds, and, at the same time, declare that they took them away from drunken natives while they were -trying to escape, thus eliminating themselves from any criminal responsibility for buying the stolen jewels. They receive a large profit for the return of the jewels and also a big reward for turning up the thief. The thief the dealer has kept filled up with whisky." ■ . '•' ■