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CHAPTER IV
THE HOUSE IN CHARTERHOUSE STREET
Personalities, important and colorful though they may be, are of less significance than the individuality of the De Beers firm itself, because this firm today is inevitably finked with the word diamonds. If we were considering a great work of art, such as a painting or a piece of sculpture or a novel, we should be deeply concerned with the creator because to him his creation was the end. To men like Rhodes and Bamato and others the diamond was merely a means toward the ends: Power, Influence, Wealth. They did not create the diamond, nor were they solely concerned with it. For instance, a whole book could be written about Bar-nato—fighting Rhodes, losing to him, watching his rise toward the dream of mastership of South Africa and then, humiliated, disappointed, taking his own life. But Barnato's death was incidental to diamonds.
On
the other hand, the De Beers organization, so far as diamonds are
concerned, overshadows the memories of Rhodes and Barnato. Founded in
1888, it is today by far the most powerful unit in the diamond
industry. Together with its own mines-—Bulfontein, Dutoitspan,
Wesselton, Koffyfontein, and others—it leases the property and plant of
New Jagersfontein (another big mine), owns practically all of the
shares of Premier (another big mine) and vir-
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