Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-04-03
THE TERRoRs OF TEXAS
Centipedes and Tarantuias Described By
Natiye-Hot Deadly Poisonous

sLorteS going ING rOunuS, texas cOnJln1os
to be terra incognita to tho outside
world. l propose to correct a few
stories, and set the people of the world
right.
No subject has furnished as much
material for fictitious stories about
Texas rs the tarantula and the cent?
pede. The tarantula is not a beautiful
bird TO look upon, / will admit, but that
he is the holy terror and embodiment of
death in its most horrible form is
fabrication by the enemy. Heis nothing
but a huge spider possessed of legs
enough for family of spiders, and has
teeth that make small fry get out of the
way. He can Jump two or three inches
not ever four at his best, after train
ing six months as an athlete. j have
caught hundreds of tarantulas, and nave
rritated them until they became
thoroughly hot in the collar, and have
had them to try and jump on me, and
they simply make spasmodic move
ment, quickly, toward you, that re.
sembles what you might call jump
caught on center, and then this move
ment ends in q little spring Of three or
four inches, which papers and Mulhat-
tons have multiplied to several feet.
So great has become the terror of
strangers regarding the Texas tarantula,
that / have known men as we'll as
women to stay awake all night when
stopping in a small Texas town, because
some one brought one of these tarantulas
around and exhibited him to the COM
pany. He 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 off again. He can bite very
severely, il 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
musQuito has been known to do.
say most positively, that no one can
show single authentic case where the
tarantula has caused death by his bite
directly through the venom he elects.
He is ugly, like the rattlesnake, in that
he will Uite when ''cornered," but will
run away every time if he can. His
bite is very painful, and makes one
quite sick for few hours, but it is not
fatal per SO. A man in San Antonio
was bitten by q 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 10 many good
points as the tarAntuIa. In fact, all |
can conscientiously say ia favor of the
centipede is that his sting, like the bite
of the tarantula, is not necessarily fatal. ]
knows of any one having been killed by
the sting of a centipede and am person
ally aci uainted with at least 30, 600 PEG
| pie in Texas, and have lived here since
| 1888. ! have known of hundreds who
say they have seen parties stung by the
| centipede, and all have lived; but have
| oniy seen one 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 out. The insect was seeking
l NiE SlOullNt, ~ W do IdlulnS, anu
the man, slapping his arm on feeling
| something crawling there, pressed the
centipede and made him sting The
tesh sloughed OF along the place where
the insect stung him several times, but
he was not even very sick from it.
This shows that the centipede does
not, as the popular eastern fallacy has
IT, sting with all his legs, but only with
his tail, which is furnished with for
midable pair of pincers, with which he
gets in his work." as the small boy
says. Bat neither he nor the tarantula
sreauent the house, only coming into 4
house here and there when it rains, and
no one is bothered with them. A cent?
pede always seems as anxious to get Out
of your sight as you are to have dis
lance placed between you, hence he il
always on the rapid retreat when seen
He will not crawl on person except as
a last resort, and then | doubt if he
does not think it 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 hal
as often seen as people think who ge
their information from eastern papers
| 1t is fact that old Texans will &,
halt mile to see large specimen O
the centipede that a neighbor has beer
fortunate enough to capture. They ar,
rare. The collection at New Orleans
and which struck new terror to the
hearts OF eastern people who contem
! plated visit to Texas, was the resul
| of years of watchfulness and toll on tn
| part of scores of people in hundred
| different portions of Texas. You, gentle
| but too credulous, reader, may come t.
Texas and live, and look every day o
your life for ten years and never see {
| live centipede nor live tarantula.