The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-04
STORIES ABOUT TARANrULAs.
The Question Whether Their Bite Is Fatal
Discussed in Tombstone Hotel.

Discussed in "a Tombstone Hotel.
Tombstone, A. T., Letter
A boy from the up country brought in a
tarantula as big as a mans hand yesterday, and
exhibited it for nickle At the hotel in the
evening some of the oldest inhabitants got to
talking about spiders and such things. One
man said it was II well-estahlished fact that no.
body had ever been killed by the bite of a
tarantula or centipede. This brought out
chorus of voices in dissent. Nearly everybody
else had known Of cases where men had died in
more or less torment as a result of being stuug
by these insects.
ELEVEN years ago. said representative
citizen. ''when there wasn't any such pleasure
in travelling through these parts as there is now,
| camPed out one night just across the New
Mexican line with party of prospectors. We
were all comparatively new, and We didn't know
anything about tarantulas When we selected
our camping place we noticed three
or four drab-colored things, looking like dice
boxes with covers, lying on the ground, but we
paid no attention to them. 1t was chilly and
we had a blazing fire. Some time in the night
Gus Peterson startled with an unearthly
yell, and running to him, we found that he was
in death agony We thought he had been
shot, and guess he did, too He didn't live
long enough, though, to get any very clear idea
of what killed him. He doubled up like Jack
knife, and then spun around like top. Then
he would straighten out stiff for a minute, and
we'd think he was dead, but pretty soon he
would begin to writhe again. We couldn't do
4
in awful torment The next day we examined
him and found bite of some kind on his left
breast The flesh was purple and swollen.
Some one said it must have been snake or a
tarantula.
''Did you ever see a tarantular asked of the
crowd.
zone man said he had seen one dead on a card
once, but none of US hadsee one alive. just
then Conkey, one of the party, picked up one of
those mud-like dice boxes with the remark:
hat tba 1aN-ila hasa Ae no
held it up the cover lifted, and out crawed a
spider with five or six legs two inches long, He
gave yell, and we all ran.
THAT'S tarantula sure, said the man who
had seen one dead. After while we crept back
to the camp, and found that we had slept in a
regular nest of them. They live in these little
boxes, which they make with astonishing pre-
cison. The cover to the box is nicely hung on
hinges, and can be raised by the tarantula from
the inside very easily. After he makes his exit
it falls back into place. fitting snugly that it
all looks like one piece. When he wants to get
in he raises it with one of his feelers, and then
lets it down after he has entered. They are
very knowing animals and there can't any one
tell me that their sting is not fatal for I've seen
it,
A Mexican then said he once knew man who
had been bitten by a tarantula in Sonora cured
by dosing him with whisky. I'VE happened
to have Jug" he said, apologeticaliy,' land
when made up our minds what the trouble
was we poured the whisky down him. He was
a Mexican and it did him good. At first it APP
peared as il he had the delirium tremens, bat
after we had filed him full he went to sleep, and
when he came to himself again he was out of
pain. He never was any good after that though.
He was kind of lame and rickety and his mind
was little unbalanced. Sometime after that
he killed man. but they let him go because he
had tarantula bite and was not responsible.
That's the only time that l ever knew anything
to save man who had been bitten | knew one
man who died instantly and three or four others
suffered i'll various ways until death relieved
them. We tried to make of them believe
that he was soaring himself to death That's
what some fellows say about these things, but
it's all bosh. A tarantula bite in Mexico means
all the whisky the victim can hold, and no Mex
lean will die under such circumstances if he can
help it.
III tell you what makes some people believe
that tarantulas and centipedes can't hurt any
body Every little while in Mexico some fellow
who is mighty dry makes tremendous fuss
about being bitten. and after he has been dosed
with free whisky for few days he RECEIVERS.