DYNAMITE AND DAISIES - THE STORY OF BARBERTON (1976)

Publisher's black hardcover binding with pictorial dust jacket.

177 pages. Illustrated.

'In 1884 Fred and Henry Barber set off on a hunting trip in the Valley of the Kaap - and instead of elephant they found gold. Within six months the town of Barberton had been proclaimed and some ten thousand people descended on the Kaap Valley. They came from Klondike in Alaska, from Cornwall and California and from all corners of South Africa. In a matter of months Barberton became the most populous, and probably the rowdiest, town in the Transvaal. Before a church or a courthouse could be built, it had three newspapers, two stock exchanges, ten hotels, two clubs and a public house on every street corner.

Piet Meiring tells the stirring story of this colourful period in South Africa's history. Its characters - French Bob with his flashing eyes, flowing black moustache and infallible instinct for smelling out gold; Stafford Parker, the genial President of the Diggers Republic; Harry Graumann, the boy broker, Hans Sauer, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Ikey Sonnenberg and the famous barmaids Cockney Liz and the Golden Dane.

Its dangers - the malaria-bearing mosquito, the tsetse-fly, the poisonous snakes and the lethal drink called Rocky Mountain Cocktail.

And its excitements - while the boom lasted men ordered footbaths of champagne and lit cigars with five pound notes.

And then finally the bubble burst - the diggers left for the Rand, one by one the music halls and public bars closed down, the barmaids packed up their finery and Barberton knew peace and quiet for the first time.' - editor's note