Cecil Rhodes

THE four years in Rhodes's life succeeding the Raid are, as an example of his grit and dogged determination in overcoming difficulties, the most marvellous even in his meteoric career. He knew himself to be under sentence of death, he was still reeling from a blow which would have crushed many of the strongest, and he had every inducement that wealth and friendship could give to pass the remainder of his days in peace and comfort. But peace and comfort did not enter into his scheme of life, and never less so than when he felt that his days were numbered and that he had a fault to retrieve. He dropped none of his old interests, but took up new ones with zest and seemed to bring to them all the old energy and directing capacity. Certainly his fellow-shareholders in his great commercial concerns, De Beers and the Gold Fields, could not complain of any neglect on his part. In the midst of the excitement caused by his journey to London to "face the music," he found time to preside at the De Beers General Meeting at Kimberley and give the shareholders a lucid and most encouraging account of their concerns. For this Company he was always thinking out fresh plans of economizing in the workings and increasing its usefulness to the community. He took very seriously his trust to dispose of the surplus profits for public objects, such as grants for educational purposes, a sanatorium for Kimberley, which, he said, "I have always thought would be an admirable place for people with chest complaints from home," volunteer corps and a local exhibition. He also took the chief part in establishing a dynamite factory for the benefit of both companies, to save

-298-