, 1885-08-07
1Hs reaRoas Or rex4s


Gen tipesles aud TarantuIas Described by
a Native-Noi Deadly Poisonous.
iAnstin Cor Detroit Free Press
see that, according to the various
stories going the rounds Texas continues
to be terra ~incognita to the outside
world. | propose to correct a few
stories. and set the people Of the world
right
No sub ecl ias furnished as much
material for iiCnfious stories about
Texas as the tarantula and tho cent?
pede. Tho tarantula IS not n beautiful
bird TO look upon. | will admit. but that
he is the holy terror and embodiment of
death IN its most horrible form Is a
fabrication by the enemy. Hell nothing
but u huge spider possessed OF legs
enough for a family of spiders, and has
teeth that make small fry get out Of the
way. lie can jump two or three inches
not ever four at his best, after train.
ing six months as an athlete. / have
caught hundreds of %tarantulas, and have
irritated them until they became
thoroughly hot in the collar, and have
had them to try and Jump on me, and
they simply mako a spasmodic move.
ment, quickly, toward you, that re.
sembles what you might call n jump
caught on center, and then this move
ment ends In n little spring of three or
four inches, which papers and Mulhat.
tons have multiplied 10 several feet.
20 great has become the terror of
strangers regarding the Texas tarantula,
that | have known men as well as
m to stay awake all night when
stopping in a small Texas town, because
some n brought ono Of these tarantulas
around and exhibited him TO the com.
pany. lie will run from you as fast as he
can when you find him; and, should you
touch him with anything, he will "do
his best to leave the country. should
you stop him, however, he will merely
grasp whatever you touch him with,
give it a vicious bite and Immediately
start OF again. Ho can bite very
severely, if you give him a chance, but
his bite is not fatal-at least, not more
so than is that of the little green species
OF spider, which has been known to kill
by causing erysipelas which, also, the
mus u.to has ueen known to do.
! say most positively. that no one can
show a single authentic case where the
%tarantula has caused death by his bite
dire fly through the venom he elects.
lie is ugly, like the rattlesnake. in that
he will ute when %''cornered, " but will
run away every time il he IAN. His
bite is very painful, and makes one
quito sick for n few hours, but it is not
fatal per Sc. A man in San Antonio
was bitten by a tarantula this week,
and was in bed one day, and suffered
from the pain two or three days, but
was never in any danger.
The centipede has not so many good
points as the tarantula. In fact, all I
can co%nscientiously say in favor Of the
centipede is that his sting, like the bite
ofthe %tarantula, is % necessarily fatal. /
have never seen a person in my life who
knows of any one having been killed by
the sting OF a centipede and | am person
ally &C TAINTED with at least so, 900 PEG.
pie in Texas. and have lived here since
1888. | have known Of hundreds who
say they have seen parties stung by the
ccntipede, and all have lived but have
oniy seen mo person myself who has
had that distinction. One of these in-
sects, with his thirty or forty legs, ran
up his sleeve one night while he was
camping ont. The insect was seeking
dry ground, as 1t was raining, and
the man, Shaping his arm on feeling
something crawling there, pressed the
centipede and made him sting. Tho
flesh sloughed oil along the place where
the insect sung him several times, but
he was not even very sick from it.
This shows that the eentipede does
not, as the popular eastern fallacy has
il, sting with all his legs, but only with
his tail, which is furnished with a for
midable pair Of pincers, with which he
gets in his work., as the small boy
says. But neither he nor the tarantula
frequent the house, only coming into n
house here and there when il rains, and
no II is bothered with them. A cent?
pedo always seems as anxious to get out
of your sight as you are to have dis
lance placed between you, hence he is
always on the rapid retreat when seen.
lie will not crawl on a person except as
n last resort, and then | doubt ii he
does not think il Is something else. He is
not there to bite you; OF this you may
be sure. No; the centipede is not dan
gerous- He is not deadly, nor is he half
as often seen as people think who get
their information from eastern papers.
II Is a fact that old Texans will go
half a mile to see n large specimen of
the centipede that a neighbor has been
fortunate enough to capture. They are
rare. Tho collection at New Orleans.
and which struck new terror to the
hearts OF eastern people who contem.
plated n visit TO Texas, was the result
of years OF watchfulness and toll ON the
part Of scores OF people in "A hundred
di erent portions Of Texas, You, gentle,
but too credulous, reader, may come to
Texas and live, and look every day of
your life for ten wears and never 500 "A