The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1880-07-28
Concerning Spiders.

mouse-eating spider, which has re-
Gently been added to the Geological
society's collection, can only be justified
in existing if we consider it to be a
supreme effort by nature in the direc-
tion of the hideous. 1t can stretch
itself out to several inches, is as black
as bear and as hairy, and aspugly as
nightmare. Nature constantly makes
these efforts to teach us how horrible
she can be when she likes; but she slips
her horrors at us only one by one, and
at long intervals, so that the general i'm
preston of her tenderness and grace
may not be too roughly shocked. Her
miracles of beauty are well known, for
she places them conspicuously in the
front, scattering butterflies lavishly all
over the world, giving her painted
favorites, the birds, wings to carry
them into the notice of men, and, gen.
orally, making her prettiest creatures
the commonest. She can, however,
work miracles in ugliness also; but
these she hides away from sight, so that
men may come upon them as a sur
prise, and thus gradually learn to appre-
ciate the full extent of her powers.
While the horse adds beauty to every
road and pasture of the world, the hip
popotamus conceals its monstrosity in
man haunts. Birds of delightful song
and dainty plumage brighten every gar
den and grove; but the hairy apteryx
creeps about at night in New Zealand
wastes, and the dodo, a practical joke
rather than bird, never waddled be-
yond the limits of single island. The
harmless and pretty grass snake and
green lizards are common all over Eu-
rope; but the loathesome cerastes is con-
cealed in Nubian deserts, and the iguana
hides itself in the leafy wilderness of
the Brazils. In clear, common water we
find the shapely trout and handsome
perch; but only in the slime of the ocean
bed lies the sea devil. Thus, all through
nature beasts, birds, reptiles and fishes
we find the ugly things made a secret
of and the pretty ones displayed; but
in insects nature, to work to the same
kind end, uses another means, for she
makes all of the common kinds so small
that their hideousness is not apparent,
and, where size is necessary, puts them
out of sight, either under desert sands
or tropical underground, or at the bot
tom of ponds and running steams. 1t is
fortunate that she does 50, for, taking
the spiders alone, If they were of large
size, they would mock the majesty of
mans high birth. despise his bulwarks
and unpeople earth.
What conceivable system of de-
fenses, for instance, could avail hu-
manity against creation of spiders as
big as sheepP They would float across
sea in tie diving bells which they know
hew to make 80 well, and swing them
selves across rivers as they now do
each jump, they could in a night,
traverse incredible distances, and wax
ing in the morning a whole village
might find itself inextricably woven up
in a fog OF web, every door, gate, and
chimney enveloped in suffocating cob
web of glutinous ropes, while the grim
twilight was made terrible by the
stealthy motions of a multitude of
blood thirsty spiders. The monsters
would pounce upon the human beings
one by one; swathe them in murderous
meshes, and sling them up to their tun-
mel roofs like naughty boys in row in
an ogre's larder. We need not follow
the fancy further, for it is evident from
even this hint of dreadful possibilities
what might be imagined if 81 iders were
as big as sheep, and still remained
spiders in character and habits. Yet
even if they changed their temper with
their bulk, and when they became as
big also as harmless as sheep, their
presence would be almost too horrible
to be borne. Their existence would
argue the presence among us of such
flies as we should have to attack with
shotguns, and grasshoppers which we
should course with grayhounds. Our
rivers would swarm with dragon flies
that would buffet boats crews with the
wings of swans, our trees be munched
up like lettuces by anaconda caterpillars,
and wood lice go about in the
bigness of tortoises. Existence
under such circumstances would
be intolerable, and the necessity
of spiders to keep down the insect packs
and herds that would otherwise trample
and jostle us out of Great Britain would
only increase the horrors of our condi-
tiOn. The mouse eating spider in
Regents park has fortunately been in
vited to come among us only as guest,
and not by any means to naturalize him.
Self here, for his appearance and habits
are abundantly sufficient to make us
prefer his continuing to remain in the
Brazils. He is, it seems, "at home in
Bahia, and there disports himself by
jumping upon the backs of mice and
little birds. in imitation of his compan-
ion, the jaguar, sucking out all their
blood and then playing with their
empty skins. AS substitution for the
common or domestic Cat, which, in
these days of cats meat men and care
less cooks has considerably lost its APP
petite for mice, and thinks it too much
trouble to catch sparIows, the great
spider might, perhaps, be usefully ac-
climatized. But what household would
submit with any complacency to the
domestication of such creatureP As
it is, chairs prove hardly high enough
when the average British spider, which
can sit on three-penny bit, and is
afraid OF an able-bodied blue bottle,
comes near a petticoat; and, if they
were any bigger, we should have to
keep ladders in every room for the
ladies of the household, to escape to the
roof. The ordinary housemaid, who
"never could abide spiders" would go
about her occupation with drawn
sword, and scullery-maids plead for the
last consultations OF religion before en-
terinR the cellars.