The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-05-16
WALTZlNG GIANTS.
Luck OF q Prospector Who Met q Dancing
Dervish of the Desert.

Dervish of the Desert.
"Out in Nevada said Joseph Grandle-
meyer, mining man from White Pine, to
New York SaNs correspondent, "we have
the sublimest dance that any man ever
saw. We call it the dance Of the giants.
Great cylinders of sand, from eight to
twenty feet in diameter, and sometimes
immensely tail, come careering across the
desert with whirling, Waiting motion
that is very graceful have often seen
them when they must have been two or
three miles high, for their tops reached up
into the clouds. But oftcner there will be
one big column, with a lot of little columns
attending it, all waltzing along together.
The effect is the strangcst thing imagin-
able. 1t inspires you with awe, and at the
same time fills you with the desire to laugh
at the odd performance. And, if the man
is superstitious, the weird, fantastic sight
can make him feel mighty uncomfortable.
They are never seen except in the summer
time, and arc most frequent in July. They
have their beginning in some little, incip-
lent whirlwind, which snatches up a hand
full Of sand while the surrounding air is
still, and then they keep on growing and
moving onward.
"They are not like the cyclones further
east, for they move with very little noise,
and, instead of being funnel-shaped, are
of the same size from top to bottom. The
motion is the same, being both circular
and advancing. They draw up into the cyl
inder fabulous quantities Of sand, tons OF
sage brush, and sometimes good-slZed
stones. How far they travel nobody can
tell. The very big ones must have TaltZed
along in their silent majesty over the lonely
deserts for long distance. They must
travel the whole distance of the White Pine
valley, three hundred and fifty miles, and
sometimes they come down through Spring
valley from Idaho to the Pcrannegat valley.
"Joe McCann, one Of the pioneers OF
White Pine, solemnly declares that he owes
his richest strike to one OF these Waltzlng
giants. He was ploddng along through the
valley. leading pack mule laden with his
prospecting outfit, when half dozen sand
columns came dancing silently along. Joe
tried to dodge one of them, and got right IN
the way of the biggest one of the whole
gang. It picked up him and the mule as
though they were feathers and packed
them across the valley in the iveiest
waltz Joe ever shook a leg in. He
got so dizzy that he couldn't tell where he
was going, and he had just made up his
mind to be smothered in sand and carried
to Heaven by this danclng dervish OF the
DESERT when his feet Struck solid ground,
and after whirling about a few times he fell
into the bed of creek that was almost dry.
When he picked himself up there was the
mule kicking solemnly and methodically at
shower of sand that was falling around
him. The waltzing column had struck
side hill and collapsed, as they often do, and
the upper part Of the column was just COM
ing down. Where the foot of the column
struck the bed Of the creek it had torn up
the gravel to Il depth Of three or four feet
and exposed some of the richest pockets OF
small nuggets that Joe ever saw. He stayed
with the claim about two months, and
cleaned up nearly $4,000 TEcn he started
to go back to the States, and blew in the
whole pile at faro bank in Pioche. Joe
has wandered through those Nevada val
leys for years since then, but hasn't had the
luck to be picked out for a partner by an
other waltzing giant"