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The National Geographic Magazine 



boring mining towns. Wages paid to 

 European day laborers on the surface, 

 range from ios. to 15s. ($2.40 to $3.60) 

 a day ; mechanics receive higher pay, 

 which ranges from 1 6s. 8d. to 1 pound 

 ($4 to $5) per day, and white miners are 

 paid the same rate. Miners who prove 

 their competence are given contracts for 

 specified work, by which their earnings 

 are usually materially increased. 



Employees' houses in Kimberley are 

 scattered through the town and many of 

 them own their own homes. Some of the 

 miners' houses cost 500 pounds or over. 



In the mines operated by the De Beers 

 Company alone more than eleven thou- 

 sand African natives are employed below 

 and above ground, coming from the 

 Transvaal, Basutoland, and Bechuana- 

 land, from districts far north of the 

 Limpopo and the Zambesi, and from the 

 Cape Colon)' on the east and the south to 

 meet the swarms flocking from Delagoa 

 Bay and countries along the coast of the 

 Indian Ocean, while a few cross the con- 

 tinent from Damaraland and Namaqua- 

 land and the coast washed by the At- 

 lantic. The larger number are roughly 

 classed as Basutos, Shanganes, M 'urn- 

 banes, and Zulus, but there are many 

 Batlapins from Bechuanaland,Amafengu, 

 and a sprinkling of nearly every other 

 tribe in South Africa. Many travel hun- 

 dreds of miles, and some more than a 

 thousand miles, in order to reach the 

 diamond fields, and many of these arrive 

 half starved and so weak and emaciated 

 that they are almost worthless as laborers 

 for weeks afterward. The natives, as a 

 rule, are generally muscular, sinewy men, 

 but not fleshy. Their feet are broad and 

 flat, but their legs and arms are com- 

 monly well rounded and their thigh and 

 shoulder muscles are large. The living 

 skeletons who come in from the far inte- 

 rior districts of Africa gain flesh as 

 rapidly when they reach a field flowing 

 with meat and porridge as lean cattle do 

 in green pastures. In the early years of 

 the mines the raw recruits were hooted at 

 and sometimes pelted with stones by their 

 kinsmen at the mines, but of late" vears 



this rough greeting and hazing has very 

 largely passed away. 



the; de beers compound 



Eor the. lodging and feeding of this 

 great force of native Africans special 

 provision is made by the erection of large 

 walled enclosures, called compounds, at 

 the mines and on depositing floors. There 

 are 17 of these compounds on the dia- 

 mond fields, twelve of which are owned 

 by the De Beers Company. The largest 

 of all is one at De Beers mine, and the 

 description of this will serve for all, as 

 they are essentially alike except in size. 



Fully four acres are enclosed by the 

 walls of the De Beers compound, giving 

 ample space for the housing of its 3,000 

 inmates, with an open central ground for 

 exercise and sports. The fences are of 

 corrugated iron, rising ten feet above the 

 ground, and there is an open space of ten 

 feet between the fence and the buildings. 

 At the northern end of the compound 

 there is an entrance gate. Iron cabins 

 fringe the inner sides of the enclosure, 

 divided into rooms 25 feet by 30 feet, 

 which are lighted by electricity. In each 

 room 20 to 25 natives are lodged. The 

 beds supplied are ordinary wooden bunks, 

 and the bed clothing is usually composed 

 of blankets which the natives bring with 

 them or buy at the stores in the com- 

 pound, where there is a supply of articles 

 to meet the simple needs of the natives. 

 Besides these stores there is a hospital 

 and dispensary, where any needed medi- 

 cal attention is promptly given, and a 

 church for religious services, conducted 

 by missionaries delegated by the various 

 church denominations. During week 

 days this church is also used as a school 

 for the instruction of the natives. Com- 

 partments with entrances opening 

 through the walls are set apart for 

 latrines and cared for with strict atten- 

 tion to sanitation. In the center of the 

 enclosure there is a large concrete swim- 

 ming bath, in which most of the natives 

 are at times found diving and swimming, 

 as is vividly shown in the accompanying 

 illustrations. If any fail to show the 



