The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1893-05-18

spin nne wires OF speel anu sLrelcn them with
other metals into an instrument that call my
'diviper.' Then tune IL with whatever want
water or iron or gold or any other metal
and FIX 1t permanently on that keynote. After
that wherever take 1t 1t responds to that and
that only. This is the way make my instru.
ments, and as / don't really suppose any one
else can do 1t have never applied for patent
OF course II said much about these matters
people would think WAS crazy; SO I expect
to find the river first, then can do more"
''Tell me about the river"
Il heard 1t few weeks ago on the Mohave
desert. 1t is several hundred feet wide and
20 feet deep. flowing far under ground. except
at one place, where it can be reached easily.
Within year after its discovery thousands Of
farms will be taken up, and the desert will be-
come one Of the gardens of the world"
The Venturan explained at much
length the inventors theories of colonial
ton and ended by advising those who
had leisure and little money to spare to
"take trip to the Mohave to watch the
modern Moses perform his great trans
formation act,
November saw 100 pioneers gathered
at the mouth Of rocky ravine at the
end OF chain Of rocky mountains that
thrust themselves far into the desert
Their horses were staked out in the midst
OF cactus and yuccas; wagons full of hay,
water, rovisions-hauled 25 miles from
the nearest oasis-were scattered about
the camp. DR.. Crane had chosen the
place and marked the exact spot where
he said the river was hardly so feet un-
derground.
The men dug through several feet Of
hard sand, then reached a tough, red
clay. They toiled in great pit that
steadily descended until one nightfall
the doctor announced that on the NOR
row the river would be reached. He
marked the course of the coming river
across the barren desert and far out on
the plain; the wagons were moved to a
place Of safety, and every thought was
given up to rejoicing.
At midnight the wind changed, the
temperature fell sharply; an old pros
pector who had spent half his life in the
Arizona deserts woke and went from
man to man rousing them to bring In
the animals and seek shelter among the
higher rocks away from the mouth Of
the ravine ''There is storm comingl"
he cried. II have seen storms in such
places before now" By dint Of much
energy he was at last able to move the
party out of the direct sweep of the
canyon.
Presently the storm arose, terrible as
the desert itself, heralded by mighty
wind, darkened by wild clouds and
binding sheets Of rain. Just at break
OF day, when the storm was at its height,
while the desert for miles was under
water, while the railroad track was be-
ing swept away, and the hills were be-
ing furrowed by thousands of new chan
nels, there came louder noise from the
deserted pit in the ravine. The men,
clinging to shelters among the great
powders on the hill, saw high, white
wall OF water moving like a flash across
the fiat, as If new risen from the chasm
they had cut with their shovels.
ut is the river bursting outr cried
DR.. Crane, leaping forward to meet it
and stumbling into the foaming current.
tits a cloudburst, boys, and the old
doctors gone forever!" shouted the pros
pector as he rushed vainly from his
shelter
By an hour after sunrise the water had
spread far over the plain and disappeared
from sight; the sky was clear; the storm
was ended. A mile distant upon the
drenched sand the body of the water
doctor was found and laid to rest on the
hillside. Rudely carved upon granite
bowlder, the epitaph still remains to
arouse the curiosity of an occasional
hunter or prospector: "Orlando Crane.
Water Doctor. Drowned In the Desert"
Date and age follow, and that is all.
The followers Of the dead man con.
tinued to sink the pit until it was far be-
low the assigned depth. Some of them
gave up Them others continued to toll on
in dogged despair; few declared round
ly that they might bore to the middle of
the earth before they found water. One
after the other the followers of the late
Orlando Crane collected their horses
from the plain, gathered up their belong.
ings and abandoned the water claim in
the Mohave. They drifted back to the
fertile valleys Of the coast, and little by
little the memory of the episode passed
out OF the thoughts of men, until even
in Gloriana the waters that once gushed
from beneath the magician's rod have
lost their earlier name and are now the
Morrison springs. Charles Howard
Shinn in ArQon8ut