The Washington herald., 1914-03-22
tango KICKS UP
Sand HILLS SILICA
No Longer Do Range Riders
Whistle the Cowboys
Lament.
WOMEN START CRAZE
Then Preachers Told How the Dance
Was Wicked and Everybody
Went to See 1t.

RushvilIe. Neb.. March e1.-The tango
has invaded the Sand Hills and the COW.
boys arc kicking up the silica with the
dance that has wiggled the world. No
more do the Sand Hill people shake
to the strains CT Sep. Winners Favorite
Quadrille;" instead. they tango to the
Argentine" and ''Ycomola Va" The
lone herder no more consoles himself by
whistling the Cowboys Lament" and
Bury Me Not on the Lone Praire-e-e,'
but rather does his imagination send forth
Brazilian Dreams and ''Toiio." Mo-
-brara Ned and Bucksiin Bess may not
be quite as graceful In their exhibition
as are some OF their city cousins. but
it's real tango they dance. just the same.
1t all started with the Valentine (Neb)
woman's Club. Valentine is the county
seat of Cherry County, the biggest
county in the entire United States" VAL
entine is a progressive sand hill town.
and its Woman's Club recently erected
a 81 ec0 clubhouse. The Individual men,
bers of the club agreed TO do everything
in their power to pay of the mortgage
Some gave tea parties. some gave so
ciables,'' some held contests Of different
varieties-but Mrs. W. S. Jackson. presi-
dent OF the club. decided to lift that debt
through the tango.
To start with. Mrs jackson didn't know
the tango herself. but she refused TO be
baffied by a slight detail. She hiked TO
Omaha, secured the services or a dancing
master, and was completely ''tsnEoized'
within the space of a week. Then she
went back TO the sand hills, carrying her
now accomplishment with her.
Upon her return to Valentine Mrs
jackson started the feet of the entire city
TO shufling. and within a short time the
very foundations OF the town were being
rocked by the cavorting wild Westerners
Of both sexes. Everybody in town got
it,
Tho first evening of the new dance all
Valentine was at the Womans club
rooms. Every man in town was on deck.
None of them had ever seen the dance, |
hut all had seen the funny pictures. and
their pastors and preachers had told them |
how naughty it was for church members |
to dance this particularly wicked dance. |
Many of the church members came Just
TO convince themselves, at first hand, of
the vileness of this new thing that was
being introduced in their midst-and most
OF them remained to give it .'whirl'
and then arrange for private lessons.
Spreading the Disease.
1t was a tremendous success But it
did not stop there. Each and every sub
Jcct, having been thoroughly inoculated,
started forth to spread the disease
throughout the sand hills, with the re-
suit that within but short time the
magic dance had taken the place OF
every known form of frontier amusement.
lip and down the railroads and out onto
the homestead and ranches went the
story that they were dancing the tango
over at Valentine and that city, for one
time, became the mecca Of the terpsIchor-
can faithful
While in Valentine they have real
music. out on the sand hills the music
is restricted to a squeaky fiddle or two.
hut rough and ready frontiersmen canI
always be found TO scrape out wild and
weird Argentine" or TOXIC in a man.
ncr to wiring the final essence of tango
out Of all who have feet.
So the tango hit the sand hills like
"a ton of brick" From Answorth to
ChadrOn and from Buffalo Gap to Craw-
ford everybody tangces.