The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-07-06
SCORPION AND TARANTULA.
The Terrific Combat That Took Place in
Bonanza City, Nevada.
Virginia City New Chronicle

| The greatest event which has taken place
| In Bonanza City since the town was born WAS
the fight on Saturday last between scorpion
and d tarantula An eye witness Of the affair
ant contests gave the following description Of
the great struggle to O Chronicle reporter yes
terday: I've seed good many fights since /
| struck this section OF the country, but yester-
| days layout was tho boss. For fun and excite~
ment 1t equaled, In my opinion, the big
prize-tlght, down the canyon that Tom
Daily took a hand In years ago. The
| ring was broken up and every Teller with q
slx-shooter pulled and turned loose on every
thing IN sight. .Weput the two varmints into
Q washbow, and when they both slid down to
the bottom they had to fight and no mistake.
There was little flat place In the bottom Of
the bowl where they could stand about four
inches apart Well, as soon as they were put
to pipe each other off. The tarantula seeing
the scorpion, just reared up on It's hind legs
and shook his fist at him with all his hair on
end. Now, there liz more OF the solid qunt-
eighth OF an inch than in anything on earth,
and when | saw the critter rear up and give
the scorp the diff, laid down five twenty
dollar pieces on him, and tail Teller covered
EN- 10 9 minute. ! knowed / had that
wanted any Of the pie at first, but after spell
Of thinkin' he sorter shook himself out and
got ready for business. The first thing we
kHoWed, BILL went the 'tula plum Into the
scorp, and then the fun begun. The spider
s'posed for while he was goin' to chaw his
head right off His teeth-teeth Is what
said-come out OF his mouth for quarter Of
an inch, and grated like buzz-saw and /
bet with wouldn't been In the linn' O. that
scorp''s boots for the Sierra Nevada mine.
All of q sudden, however, the scorp braced
himself, and whack! went his tall into the
lula. tell you the spider let go too quick,
had kicked him. thought he was gone, but ut
you bet ne was On deck quick enough,
and he came TO the scratch agin With
blood In his eye Then come the big
bout OF the whole business. Both Of EN-
spider was workin' his left nasty for q biff at
the scorp's ear, but whenever he let loose the
other threw up his claw and countered on his
stomach, just like Mailman and Lynn for all |
the world The spider saw there were no
chromos for him In d stand-up fight and 50 he
jumped in Notwithstanding. It would make
your blood run cold to see the way them fell
lers chawed and clawed each other for five
minutes, and the crowd round the bowl clean
crazy with excitement. | threw up another
the durndest grip on the scorp that ever was.
Why, he had bis head in chancery In nine
places and about sixteen grapevine locks on
his legs: They Wrestled all the styles ever
uediu oi-COTnlsn, Lancashire, GrfBcO-ROman
and collar-and-elboW. Itwas irregular tourna-
ment rolled into one. The 'tula had the grip
ne had been huntin' for some time. All Of
sudden, just as was reachin' down In nv
pocket for another hundred dollars to plank
lp on the spider, the scorp switched his tail
'Ound and slammed 1t into the SPIDERS belIv
about quarter Of an inch, held It there awhile
md then began to turn 1t round, like he was
,oring diamond drill into quartz ledge.
The spider got pale around the glls and
ooked like he wanted doctor, and / quietly
ct that 500 slide back where it belonged.
Then the spider let go fourteen under-holdg
md laid down like he wanted a rest. He rested
or about minute or so, like a piece of wool
hriveled up, and the scorp strutted round
Ind round, like drum major on dress parade.
The bets were ten to one on the scorn
nd no takers. All of sudden up
jumps the spider and goes for him again.
t appeared to me like the beast had only lust
aade up his mind to fight, and the wav
e went for the scorp was like thousand O.
rlcks tumblin onto a child. When saw him
'et down fairly to work bet the third hum
red, and felt somehow like when he felt me
mink the coin it would give him little moral
ackln'. You could hear scorp's shell crack
ke a schoolboy chaWln' peanuts at church
tir. The spider had 1t all his own way for
oel, and was gittin' his work In fine when
le pesky scorp hunted up the same hole mis- /
III was In before, and got it there again. d
adn't, but that saved his bacon, and the spi-
er gritted his teeth few times and keeled
'er and died. This doesn't shake my faith | b
tarantulas. however. I've got tWo-ounce
,ider that I'll match agin any scorpion in
OEoy county NEXT Sunday for &sSfA1 a Sif3ea rs :,