BARNEY BARNATO By Richard Lewinsohn
Just forty years ago Barney Barnato ended a meteoric career, " from White- chapel clown to diamond icing," by throw- ing himself from a Cape mailboat. He was only forty-four, but he had long been a millionaire. Mr. Lewinsohn's memoir (Routledge, rm. 61) of this singular man, whose real name was Isaacs, is as readable as most stories of adventure and does not overrate his qualities or underrate his luck in arriving at Kimber- ley in 1873, when the infant diamond industry was almost moribund. Barnato, then a robust youth of twenty, was able to endure a spell of extreme poverty and profit by the first signs of reviving trade. Thrifty and shrewd, he bought claims. He was the first to guess the possibili- ties of the " blue ground," deep down below the surface, where diamonds have since been found in abundance. By z88o he was making k90,000 a year. In 1888, after a sharp conflict which the author describes clearly, Barnato and Rhodes amalgamated their interests in the De Beers combine. Barnato was elected to the Cape Parliament but took no real interest in politics. Indeed, it was his misfortune to have no interests apart from money and sport. But it is fair to add that his friendship with Kruger enabled him to prevent the old President from confirming the death sentences passed on the four Johannesburg men principally concerned- in Jameson's raid. Barnato should be remembered for that one sensible act.
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