The Outlook at Johannesburg. 59 



do. The brio'lit clays which marked the discovery 

 of the gokl mines and tlie infancy of Johannesburg- 

 have passed away. The twenty milhons of capital, 

 at one time inflated to nearly forty millions, are now 

 reduced to nearer four millions. The London Stock 

 Exchange has become callous and insensible to the 

 attractions of rich reefs, of newly- discovered deep 

 levels, and the inhabitants, many of whom have 

 undergone the bitterest experiences and the 

 strangest vicissitudes, have an aspect to some 

 extent of doubt, nervousness, and anxiety, wonder- 

 ing when the long period of inaction and stagna- 

 tion, lasting for more than two years, ^vill come to 

 an end, and when their former golden hours will 

 return. I do not think there is an\' necessitv for 

 doid)t, care, and anxiety. 



Facts speak for themselves, even to a stranger. 

 A gold-field which has been steadily and gra- 

 dually increasing its output, and which has 

 now attained a monthly production of 60,000 oz., 

 in value some 200,000/., must have befoi-e it a 

 great futiu-e.^ Recent bad times and the insen- 

 sibility of the London ]\Ioney Market have 

 had an admirable effect upon the directors and 

 managers of the gold mines here. They have been 

 compelled, by force of circumstances, to divert 

 their attention from the flotation of new companies 

 and from the pushing up of shares to absurd 

 premiums l^y inaking fallacious returns of crush- 

 ings, and by other dodges familiar to the promoter. 



^ The monthly output for January, 1892, .sis niontlis after 

 the statement above -was recorded, was valued at 84,000 ounces. 



