I remember one amusing instance of the idiosyncrasy referred to. There was
in Johannesburg a man who, having arrived there with twenty-five pounds in
his pockets--as he liked to relate with evident pride in the fact--had, in
the course of two years, amassed together a fortune of two millions
sterling. One day during dinner at Groote Schuur he enlarged upon the
subject with such offensiveness that an English lady, newly arrived in
South Africa and not yet experienced in the things which at the time were
better left unsaid, was so annoyed at his persistency that she interrupted
the speaker with the remark:

"Well, if I were you, I would not be so eager to let the world know that I
had made two millions out of twenty-five pounds. It sounds exactly like
the story of the man who says that in order to catch a train at six
o'clock in the morning he gets up at ten minutes to six. You know at once
that he cannot possibly have washed, whilst your story shows that you
could not possibly have been honest."

I leave the reader to imagine the consternation produced among those
present by these words. But what were their feelings when they heard
Rhodes say in reply:

"Well, one does not always find water to wash in, and at Kimberley this
happened oftener than one imagines; as for being honest, who cares for
honesty nowadays?"

"Those who have not lived in South Africa, Mr. Rhodes," was the retort
which silenced the Colossus.

This man of the get-rich-quick variety was one of those who had mastered