The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-06-14
AN OLD CIRCUS MANS STORY
He Tells Row They Found Place in
Which to Bury the Great Giant.


Which to Bury the Great Giant.
81 never told you the exact height
of the great giant--what's the USE!
said the old circus man. You wouldn't
believe it If l did; as I've said before
it would only make you dis-DelleVe
what I do tell you about him, and
what's the use? But you can form
some sort Of an idea about it if from
these things that I've told you and
from what I'm going to tell you now
about his death and burial, because ID
the course of time he died.
We were under canvas then, show
ing three times day, and moving
ourselves. and we were tolerable busy,
and we really hadn't time to give at
tention as we ought to the burying OF
what had been, after the great giraffe,
our very greatest attraction. The dig
ging OF Il grave for him would have
been like digging the foundations for
several houses il TOW and would
have taken lots of time, and the mere
cost Of the land would be considerable.
We'll, as usual, the old mans horse
sense came to the rescue. IN looking
around for forage when he struck the
town he had discovered the bed Of an
abandoned canal, that they'd stopped
using when the railroad was built.
This old canal ran through the edge Of
a mans farm there. and the land was
no use to anybody. 1t didn pay to
plough it because it wasn't worth the
time and trouble it would take to get
horses and plougns up and down the
bank. and it wasn't any good for any
thing: and the old man bought Il strip
of that land along there. a few acres
OF it. enough for cemetery lot for the
giant. for next to nothing. So you see
there we were. with the land bought
and the grave dug at very small eX-
pense and practically in minute.
I'VE laid the giant down in the Sec
ton of the canal we had bought, and
hauled earth from the rest Of the piece
to cover him up-the old man was wise
enough of course to buy land enough
to provide for that When the mound
was rounded up in proper shape and
due proportions it made quite ridge:
it was a fat country round there, and
you could see this ridge for quite q
piece.
.Of course the old man put up 4
headstone. and it was much the biggest
I ever saw. and quite different from
any l ever saw-it was built Of brick.
The old man hired all the men that
could work on it. and they put in a
foundation ana built the headstone in
half day. 1t was something like the
Size of a brick house for general di-
mensions. only it was very much thick
er and tombstone-liLe in shape, and at
a little distance in the level country
the ridge with the great stone at one
end of it looked like what it was, the
grave Of Il mighty giant.
And so we left him secure in men,
ory, as we thought with the inscrip-
ton we had put on the headstone, but
a great storm came up before the NOR
tar had set and blew the headstone
down, and there it lay simply a scat
terins pile Of brick. But the mound
remained, as it still does; I saw 1t there
only a year ago when passed through
that country But with nothing to
mark it, exact knowledge Of it gradual
lv faded, and even tradition had grown
indistinct. and the great mound had
come finally to be known simply as the
riart'S hill"