The Penn's Grove record., 1884-11-08

AbCE from the M country pfouEh4 III "
taranE YtoTombstone as higias a mans
hau%,IR exhibited 10 for a nickel, Al
the hbtei in the evening some OF tue
Oldest inhabitants got TO talking about
spiders ed. such things. One man
said well-estsblished fact that
noboG, fever been killed by T the
bite cse1ht j.. A4uia or a centipede. Thus
m ont a chorus Of voices N
dissent. Nearly everybody else mad
known OF cases where men had J IN
more or less torment ~ a result Of
being stung by these insects.
Eleven years ago, " said a repr son.
tative citizen, "when there wasn't any
such pleasure IN traveling through these
parts as there Is row, ] camped u one
night Just across the New MeHlco me
with a party Of p~rosPectors. We we're
ali comparatively new, and We didn !
know ANYTHING about tsrantulas. when
we selected our camping place We
noticed three or four drab-colored
things. looking like dice boxes with
covers. living on the ground, Int we
paid no attention to them. II was
chilly. and we had a blazing fire. some
time In the night Gus Peterson startled
us with an uuearthly yell, and, running
10 him. we found that he was IN adeath
agony. We thought he had been shot,
and / cuess he did too, He didn't 1--we
long enough though to get any very
clear idea OF what killed him. tie
doubled M like a jlck knife, and then
spun around like a top. linen ne
would straighteu ont stiff for a minute,
and we'd think he was dead, AGAIN.
We couldn't do anything with him. lie
died in about an hour IN awful torment.
The next day we examined HIM ana
found a bite OF some Kind on his lett
breast. The flesh was purple aud
swollen. Some one said 1t must have
been a snake or a tarantula.
''Did you ever see a tarantaiaF l
asked of the crowd.
zone man said he had seen one dead
On a card once, bnt none of us had ever
seen one alive. Just then Conkey, one
of the party, picked up Il of the mnd-
like dice boxes, with the remark: what
the devil are these things, boys?' As he
held it up the cover lifted, and out
crawIed a spider with five or six legs
two inches long. BE gave a yell, and
we all ran.
i" That's a tarantula, sure, said the
man who seen one dead. After a while
we crept back to the camp, and found
that we had slept in a regular nesf OF
of them, They live In these little
boxes. which they make with astonish-
ing preo sion. The 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 1t
falls back into place, fitting so snugly
that it all looks like piece. When
he wants to get in he raises it with one
of his fddlers, 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 ls not fatal,
for I've seen 1t.
A Mexican then said he once saw "A
man who had been bitten by q tarantu-
la in Sonora cured by DOSING him
with whisky. I'VE happened to nave a
jug. he said, apo.ogetically, ''snd when
we made up cur minds what the trouble
was we poured the whisky down him.
He was a Mexican and it did him good.
At first he appeared as if he had the
deki,itnl trsnlens, but after we bad
flied 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, aud his mind was a
little unbalanced Sometime after that
he killed a man, but they let HIM go
because he had a tarantula bite aud
was not responsible. That's the only
time that | ever knew anything to save
a man who had been bitten. | knew
n man who died instantly and three
or four others who suffered IN various
r-TyB uItit death relieved them. We
tried to make one Of them believe that
he was scratching him eff to death.
That's what some fellows try TO say
about these things, but it's all bosh. a
tarantula bite In Mexico means all the
whisky the victim can hold, aud no
Mexican will die under such circum-
stances if he can help It."
'Ill tell you what makes ome peo-
pie believe that tarantuias and cent?
pedes can't hurt anybody. Every little
while IN Mexico some fellow who is
mighty dry makes a tremendous fuss
about being bitten, and after he has
been dosed with free whisky for q few
days he RECEIVERS. Now, the truth Is
these dead beats were not bitten at all.
Nothing moves the sympathy Of a
Mexican like a tarantula bite, and l am
sorry to say that frauds take advantage
of this very frequently.
The last man who spoke said he knew
Of a case in Grass valley, Cal, where a
man vas bitten on the arm by a oenti-
pede, and took TO his bed never to rise
again. When 1t became obvious that
something must be done TO save his life
a surgeon cut the arm OFF. For a time
he seemed to be suffering only from
smputation, but the poison at length
appeared in the other arm, and that
was also smputated. He fingered for a
long time in pain, and finally died very
Suddenly n day, the poison having
Preached his heart.