The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-07-31
CONCERNING SPIDERS,

articles ON beasts, birds, and fishes, dis
courses rs follows on spiders in the issue
of June 26: GA 'mouse-eating spider
which has recently been added to the
Geological Society's collection, can, like
the echiS viper lately noticed by us, only
be justified in existing if we consider it
to be a supreme effort by nature in the
direction of the hideous. 1t can stretch
| itself out to severed inches, is as black as
bear and as hairy, and as ugly 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 mira
cles 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 generally making her pref
test 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 sur
prise, and thus gradually learn to appre-
ciate the full extent of her powers.
While the horse adds a beauty to every
road and pasture i'll the world, the hip
popotamus conceals its monstrosity in
swamps and river rushes far from human
haunts. Birds of delightful song and
dainty plumage brighten every garden
and grove; but the hairy apteryX creeps
about ut night in New Zealand wastes,
and the dodo, a practical joke rather than
bird, never waddled beyond the limits
of a single island. The harmless and
pretty "grass snake and the % green
lizards y are common all over Europe;
but the loathly cerastes is concealed in
Nubian deserts, and the iguana hides it
self in the leafy wilderness of the Brazils.
In clear common water we find the shape
ly trout and handsome perch; but only
i'll the slime of the ocean bed lies the
''sea-devil.'' Thus, all though nature
beasts, birds, reptiles and tishes-we find
the ugly things made secret of and the
pretty ones displayed: but in insects
nature, to work to the same kind, uses
another means, for she makes all the COM
mon kinds so small that their hideousness
is not apparent, and, where size is neces-
sary, puts them out of sight, either I'M
der desert sands or tropical underground,
OF at the bottom of ponds or running
streams. 1t is fortunate that she does
so, for, taking the spiders alone, if they
were of large size. they would ''mock the
majesty Of mans high birth, despse his
bulwarks, and unpeople the earth.'
"What conceivable system of defences
for instance, could avail humanity against
Il creation of spiders as big as sheep?
They would float across the sea in the
diving-bclls which they know how to
make SO well, and swing themselves
across rivers as they now do across gar
den paths. Leaping many miles at each
jump they could in night traverse in
credible distances, and waking in the
morning a whole village might find it
sells inextricably woven up in fog of
web, every door. gate and chimney en-
veloped in sulf,ocating cobweb of glutin-
Gus ropes, while the grim twilight was
made terrible by the stealthy motions of
Il multitude of bloodthirsty SPIDERS The
monsters would pounce upon the human
beings one by one, swathe them in muir
derous meshes, and sling them up to their
tunnel roofs like naughty boys in a 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 spiders were
as big as sheep. and still remained spiders
in character and habits. Yet even fthey
changed their temper with their bulk,
and when they became as big, also 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 shot guns, and grasshoppers which
we should course with greyhounds. Our
rivers would swarm with dragon flies that
buffet boats crows with wings Of swans
our trees be munched up like lettuces by
anaconda caterpillars and wood lice go
about in the bigness of tortoises. Exis-
tence under such circumstances would
be intolc able, and the necessity of spid-
ers to keep down the insect packs and
herds that would otherwise trample and
iostle us out of Great Britain would only
increase the horrors of our condition.
The ''mouse- eating spider in Regents
Park has fortunately been invited to come
among us only as a guest, and not by any
means to naturalizc himself here, for
his appearance and habits are abundant
ly sufficient to make us prefer his con-
tinuing 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 imita-
ton of his companion, the jaguar, suck
ing out all their blood and then playing
with their empty skins. AS a substitute
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 sparrows, the great
spider might, perhaps be usefully accli-
matized But what household would
submit with any complacency to the do
meStication of such creature? As it is,
chairs prove hardly high enough when
the average British spider, which can sit
on a three-penny bit, and is afraid of an
able bodied bue-bottle, comes near
pettiooat; and, if they We're any bigger
we should have to keep ladders in every
room for ladies of the household to es-
cape to the roof, The ordinary house.
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