[Shella] thing

[Dolfi]

Tanding the ruthlessness which he displayed in regard to them. There
were millionaires far richer than himself in Kimberley and in
Johannesburg. Alfred Beit, to mention only one, could dispose of a much
larger capital than Rhodes ever possessed, but this did not give him an
influence that could be compared with that of his friend, and not even
the Life Governorship of De Beers procured for him any other fame than
that of being a fabulously rich man. Barney Barnato and Joel were also
familiar figures in the circle of wealthy speculators who lived under
the shade of Table Mountain; but none among these men, some of whom were
also remarkable in their way, could effect a tenth or even a millionth
part of what Rhodes succeeded in performing. His was the moving spirit,
without whom these men could never have conceived, far less done, all
that they did. It was the magic of Rhodes' name which created that
formidable organisation called the De Beers Company; which annexed to
the British Empire the vast territory known now by the name of Rhodesia;
and which attracted to the gold fields of Johannesburg all those whom
they were to enrich or to ruin. Without the association and glamour of
Rhodes' name, too, this area could never have acquired the political
importance it possessed in the few years which preceded, and covered,
the Boer War. Rhodes' was the mind which, after bringing about the
famous Amalgamation of the diamond mines around Kimberley, then
conceived the idea of turning a private company into a political
instrument of a power which would control public opinion and public life
all over South Africa more effectually even than the Government. This
organisation had its own agents and spies and kept up a wide s
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