oers
had "Long Toms" that hurled hundred pounders. At Rhodes' suggestion
Labram manufactured a big gun capable of throwing a thirty-pound shell
and it gave the besiegers a big and destructive surprise. This gun,
which was called "Long Cecil," was built and booming in exactly
twenty-eight days. Tragically enough, Labram was killed by a Boer shell
while shaving in his room at the Grand Hotel exactly a week after the
first discharge of his gun.

IV

The part that Americans had in the development of Kimberley is slight
compared with their participation in the exploitation of the Rand gold
mines. Not only were they the real pioneers in opening up this greatest
of all gold fields but they loomed large in the drama of the Jameson
Raid. One of their number, John Hays Hammond, the best-known of the
group, was sentenced to death for his role in it. The entire technical
fabric of the Rand was devised and established by men born, and who had
the greater part of their experience, in the United States.

The capital of the Rand is Johannesburg. When you ride in a taxicab down
its broad, well-paved streets or are whirled to the top floor of one of
its skyscrapers, it is difficult to believe that thirty years ago this
thriving and metropolitan community was a rocky waste. We are accustomed
to swift civic transformations in America but Johannesburg surpasses any
exhibit that we can offer in this line. Once called "a tin town with a
gold cellar," it has the atmosphere of a continuous cabaret with a jazz
band going all the time.

No thoroughly acclimated person would ever think of calling Johannesburg
by its full and proper name. Just as San Francisco is contracted into
"'Frisco," so is this animated joytown called "Joburg." I made the
mistake of dignifying the place with its geographical title when I
innocently remarked, "Johannesburg is a live place." My companion looked
at me with pity--it was almost sorrow, and replied,

"We think that 'Joburg' (strong emphasis on 'Joburg') is one of the
hottest places in the world."

The word Rand is Dutch for ridge or reef. Toward the middle of the
eighties the first mine was discovered on what is the present site of
Johannesburg. The original excavation was on the historic place known as
_Witwatersrand_, which means White Water Reef. Kimberley history
repeated itself for the gold rush to the Transvaal was as noisy and
picturesque as the dash on the diamond fields. It exceeded the Klondike