St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-02-18
SPIDERS IN BANANAS.
How Cheerful Tarantulas and Pleasant
Scorpions Are brought to Chicago.

Scorpions Are brought to Chicago.
| Hi there! Look out! yelled Jim Tav-
lor, as some of his men were handling
lot of yellow bananas just received.
The men seemed to understand, for
they dropped the punches of fruit upon
the floor and looked sharply about. 1t
was well they obeyed the warning so
promptly, for there sprang from d
bunch much larger than the others, u
strange creature, red in color and
about the size of man's hand.
Look out, it'll bite! it's tarantu-
LAP shouted Taylor, scrambling upon
counter. The others followed his
example and got out of the way of the
ugly beast. The tarantula, for it was
one of those poisonous insects, sprung
savagely out and landed with some
noise, on the floor Its ugly body
quivered with rage and its many legs
moved constantly. 1t travelled with
incredible rapidity for an insect of it's
peculiar build. Taylor seized large
pasteboard box and ran after the taran-
tula. After an exciting chase, he cor
nered it, just as it was about to tackle
an apple barrel. He covered it with
the box, which he Immediately scooped
over and closed by putting on the
cover.
This done, he sent it over to Doctor
Storm, who killed the insect, extricat-
ed its poison for use as medicine, put up
the body in alcohol and sent it back to
Taylor The fruit man exhibits it pre-
served in bottle. IAN awful waste
of good alcohol" he says. 1t has
shrunk now but is still good sized
bug. 1t is dark red in color and is COW
cred with sandy hair 1t possesses ten
legs and is not a pleasant sight to look
upon. 1t certainly never would be pre-
served for its beauty. With tin the
bottle is an egg which was afterwards
found in the same bunch. When found
it was about the size of a hens egg,
and quite as solid. 1t evidently con-
tanned little insects, but Taylor said he
wasn't quite ready to go into the busi-
ness of Matching tarantulas this year,
so he put it in the bottle with the old
one. The alcohol has made the egg,
if such it can be called, soft and pulpy,
and it has become transparent enough
to show that it contains several taran-
tulas.
''We find several of these cheerful GUS
toners every year." said Taylor, speak
ing on the subject. ''We also get
choice consignments of scorpions and
centipedes and other pleasant exotics
from the tropics. The demand
for them is rather light, however, and
we find that people don't banker after
them. Now, here" he said, producing
another jar containing different in
sect, sis red scorpion. Nice, joyful
looking bed-fellow, isn't hep He came
here in bunch of bananas two years
ago. There was tarautula in the
same bunch, and as soon as the clerk
who was handling the fruit saw them.
he thought he must 'have them again,
for he dropped the fruit and ran out
of the store. If he is still running in
the same direction and at the same
Idbc, uc uluSb III" DC
near Winnipeg. Well, the two insects
got sight of each other and went to
fighting like cats and dogs. We gave
them all the room they wanted and
didn't interfere even when we saw that
the scorpion was little groggy in the
fifth round. They killed each other at
last, but the tarantula got smashed
and we couldn't preserve him.
The scorpion has eight legs and
muscular tail with a sharp thorn in the
end of it. Mr.. Taylor said that he had
given several specimens of both insects
to universities. He has q centipede
which he found the other day. Itisa
small one, being about two inches long
and supplied with plenty of locomotive
power and long feelers besides
II notice that these and other bugs
always come in the yellow bananas, .
he continued, "and never in among
the red fruit. Our bananas come from
lower Nicaragua. There is small
species of rat called the banana rat,
which is sometimes brought up here In
the fruit. / have never heard of any
one in Chicago being bitten by taran-
lula, but fruit dealer in New York
died from that cause.-Ch'eo-
40 NeUs.