CITY BUILT ON GOLD (1959)

The fascinating story about Johhanesburg complete with 14 b&w photographic illustrations on glossy paper.

CONTENTS:

I. The Discovery of the Rand's Gold;
II. How Johannesburg began;
III. Amusements and Night Life;
IV. Discomfort, Famine, Disease and Drought;
V. Murders, Mysteries and Robberies;
VI. Water, Light and Transport;
VII. Clubs and Societies;
VIII. The Growth of the Camp;
IX. The Stock Exchange;
X. The Shopping Centre and the Suburbs;
XI. From Raid to War;
XII. Under British rule;
XIII. Progress in Troubled Years;
XIV. The 1913-1914 Strikes and Martial Law;
XV. The First World War;
XVI. Bolshevism and the Red Revolt;
XVII. The Camp becomes the City;
XVIII. Johannesburg in 1959;
INDEX.

" 'CITY BUILT ON GOLD' tells the fascinating story of how a little mining camp grew into the wealthiest city in Africa. It describes the harsh conditions under which the pioneers of the Rand lived when the world's greatest gold field was first worked, and the hectic life of the cosmopolitan crowd of fortune-seekers who swarmed into a rural republic ill-equipped to deal with such an invasion. It records the rough amusements (from dog fights and prize fights to gambling for large sums of money), the epidemics, riots, drought, famine, disasters and wars which marked the early years of a community long known simply as "the camp". Drawn from the newspapers of the period and other sources the book describes the social and economic conditions in early Johannesburg in more detail than any other volume. It quotes the prices of commodities and the cost of living, and in fact gives a wonderfully complete account of the old days on the Rand. Old Johannesburgers still talk about the Rand Steam Tram, the Telephone Tower, the Tin Temple, Between the Chains, the Brickfields, the Freda Bridge and other now almost forgotten landmarks of the Johannesburg of long ago. The book tells what they were and how they began. It is a volume that will delight all who know something of the older Jo'burg and will interest the younger generation by showing how the city was founded and developed."

(from the "Foreword" by the Author)

Original publisher's yellow cloth. Gilt title to the spine, front board with mine-headgear motive embossed in gilt. With illustrated dusk jacket; Text in English; Collation complete - False titile, Title page, [5], 248 pages, with 14 b&w photographic illustrations on glossy paper; Dust jacket is present, with some shelf wear, slightly bumped and dusty, little chipped and with a few short tears to the extremities, upper parts of folds internally reinforced with a tape. Binding is whole, tight, firm and secure, overall well preserved, with a slight bumping to the spine extremities, front board little wavy. Text block/pages perfectly clean and bright, no any faults, foxing or marks, seems that the volume has never been opened (before us). A sound copy of this very rare title.

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