Again, one moment he might be talking of De Beers
business, involving huge sums of money, the next discussing the progress
of his thirty fruit-farms in the Drakenstein district, where he had no
fewer than 100,000 fruit-trees; another time his horse-breeding
establishment at Kimberley was engaging his attention, or, nearer home,
the road-making and improvements at Groot Schuurr, where he even knew
the wages paid to the 200 Cape boys he was then employing. Mr. Rhodes
was always in favour of doing things on a large scale, made easy,
certainly, by his millionaire's purse. Sometimes a gardener or bailiff
would ask for two or three dozen rose or fruit trees. "There is no use,"
he would exclaim impatiently, "in two dozen of anything. My good man,
you should count in hundreds and thousands, not dozens. That is the only
way to produce any effect or to make any profit." Another of his
theories was that people who dwelt in or near towns never had sufficient
fresh air. During one of our morning rides I remember his stopping a
telegraph-boy, and asking him where he lived. When the lad had told him,
he said: "I suppose there are no windows in your cottage; you had better
go to Rhodesia, where you will find space, and where you won't get
cramped ideas." Then he rode on, leaving the boy staring at him with
open eyes.
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