The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-07-17

sqTare eighth OF sn inch than IN any
tning on earth, and ~hen saw the
crifter rear up and give the scorp the
c II laid down five SEQ pieces on him,
and tail Teller covered 'em in a MN
ute. knOwtd hsd the money dead.
The scOrp didn't seem like he wanted
any Of the pie at first, but after a spell
Of thiukin' ne s1rter shook himself out
and goL ready for business. The first
thing we knowed-o.ff went the 'tula
plum into the scorp and then the fun
oeEun. The spider grabbed him by the
back of the neck sud We s'posed for a
whsle hn wa goiU' 10 chsw his b. al
right eff His tee;A--.erth it was /
sSId-come out out of bis mouth for a
q Ia-ter Of IN inch aud grstsd like 8
UaZk saw, and | began feel sorry for the
other felier that bet with. / wouldn't
been IN the hnin' % that scorp's boots
for the Sierra Nevada mine. All of 8
sudden, however, the scorp braced him.
self snd whack went his tail into the
'tuis. / tell You the spider let GO too
quick and went tunblin' across the bow
Ike mule had kicked him. Thought
ne wss gone, but you bet he was on deck
quick enough, and he came TO the
scratch again with blood in his eye.
Then come the big bout of the whole
business. Both of 'em spared around
spell for an opening. The spider
was workin' his lett marty for biff at
the scorp's ear, but whenever he let
loose tie other threw up his claws and
Iuntered on. his stomach, just like
HallIm IN and Lynn for all the world
Fac spider saw there no chromos for
him in a stand-uD fight and so he
jumped in rOugh-snd-'umble. IL
would make your blood run cold to see
the way them fellers chawed and claw
ed each other for five minutes, and the
Crowd round the bowl clean crazy
with excitement. | threw up another
hundred on the spider for | could see
he hal the durndest grip on the sc1rp
that ever was. Why, he had h head
IN chsncery in nine places ana about
sixteen grapevine locks on his legs.
They wrestied all the styles ever heard
of-Coruish, Lancashire, G 1co-Ro-
man and collar-and-elbow. IL was a
regular tournsmsnt rolled into one.
The 'tula had the grip he had been
huntin' for some time. All of sud-
den, Just as | was reachin' down in my
pocket for another hundred dollars to
plank upon the spide, the scorp switch
ed his tail round and slammed it into
the spiders belly about quarter of an
inch. held it there awhile aid then be-
gan to turn 1t round, like he was boring
drill tnk cd
The spider got pale ound the ri Is and
looked like he wanted doctor, and /
quietly let that hundred dollars slide
back here 1t belonged Then the spl-
der let 90 fourteen underhUlds and laid
down like he wanted a rest. He rest
ed for about minute OF so like lit
piece of wool shrIveled up, and the
scOrp strutted round AMI round like q
drum j0r on dress parade. The bets
was 10 to on the corp and no takers.
ALI of a sudden up jumps the spider
and goes for him again. 1t appeared
TO me like the BEST had only just made
up his mind to fight, and the WY he
went for the scOrp was like thousand
o. bricks tumblin' onto child. When
| saw him get down fairly to work l
bet the third hundred and elt somehow
like when he heard me chiDk the coin
l. would give him a. little moral backin.
You could hear the scorp's she'll crack
like a. schoolboy chawin' peanuts at a
church fair. The spider had it all its
own way for spell and was gittin' his
work in fine when the pesky scorp hunt
ed up the same hole Install was in be-
fore and got it there again. He'd been
licked 10 another minute if he hadn't.
but that saved his bacon and the spider
gritted his teeth few times and keeled
over and died. This don't shake my
faith IN tarantulas, however. I've got
two-ouuce spider that I'll match again
any scorpion in Storey county next
Sunday for $500 side"
Here the man produced a box and
showed tarantula that looked as if it
would be able to whip bulldog.
When he left he assured the reporter
conidentially, that betting on the
spider was "a dead sure thing"