, 1888-04-22
STUNG BY A SCORPION.
HOW THE DEADLY INSECT MAKES
ITS WAY NoRTHWARO.

A Scared Darkey in a New York Fruit
store-The Old Druggists ~Remedy-The
'MuIe killers" Description of the scor-
pion Family.
A reporter was hurrying down Barclay
street a few days ago, conscious that he
had but n few minutes in which to catch
the Hoboken ferryboat, when he suddenly
stopped at a dark opening, which led into
a still darker basement. Bunches of ba-
nanas hung to the Intel and were fes-
TONED up the jambs of the doorway.
while bursting crates of golden oranges
were piled on the downward leading steps.
1t was an agonizing yell, which seemed
to hint of murder and sudden death, as It
burst from the recesses of this dingy look
ing cavern that had arrested his steps.
He had not long to wait for an explana-
ton. Up the steps, at the risk of overturn-
ing the piled up boxes of fruit which OBJ
structed the passage, bounded a coal black
negro, whose eyes were bullying out of his
head with mingled fright and pain, and
as he ran he vigorously shook one of his
immense hands, which the reporter could
see was growing every instant still larger.
go de lawd," he ~blubbered, "rse a
dead niggah, suah. Use stung by a rat
tier, l is" To a dabbler in natural his
tory the opportunity was not to be missed,
even at the expense of losing half n q dozen
Hoboken ferry boats, and the reporter
followed the negro as he bolted into a
drug store near by. He found the man
exhibiting his wounded paw to an I'M
sympathetic druggist, who seemed, how
ever, TO know exactly what to do under
the circumstances, while the patient kept
up a running commentary of CALCULATIONS
bearing on the agony he was suffering.
'Hit's n terrible bite, suah. Hit aches me
way up to dat ar shoulder. Rattler's
bites poison, ANTS 1t, sahi'p ''That's no
RATHER" snorted the druggist. Game
out of a bunch of bananas, you sayP Well,
l guess it was a Scorpion
mo, sab, hit came from among dem
or'nge boxes"
''Then it must have been a spider or u
mule killer, :" said the druggist.
By this time he had prepared a dose
which he ave the terrified darkey to
swallow, and then, with n strong smelling
lotion, he bathed the afflicted member.
At this point the reporter took n hand in
the conversation. "Is tina whisky you
gave him to drink" he asked
mo, young man." said the old drug
gist. Its ammonia, and worth a quart
of whisky in the case of a spider or scor-
pion bite
''Then a mule killer is a scorpion2"
mo, sir, it is not a scorpion"
"Ah, thenn-with brilliant ratiocina-
tion-"it's a spider"
Wrong again. said the druggist. sit
isn't a spider"
Then what on earth is it2'
cts just between the two" said the
druggist, and the darky having subsidized
into a condition of mute despair, varied
by an occasional moan of lingering agony
and the store being otherwise deserted
the druggist became quite conversational.
He was an old mar with clean shaven
face, struggling gray hair and keen eyes,
which peered at one over the tops of his
old fashioned spectacles. This was by no
means the first case of a poisonous bite he
had treated, he said, since he had settled
in the ~neighborhood. All around him
were the establishments of dealers in all
sorts of tropical fruits, and hidden in
punches of bananas, under heaps of cocoa-
nuts or in crates of fruit, were often to
be found scorpions and spiders of all sorts
and sizes. Occasionally the men handling
the fruit get bitten, but more often the
insects are In a semi-torpid state and are
killed before they get a chance to do any
damage.
"Many years ago." continued the drug
gist, 81 was a member of a surveying
party, for, among other professions 1 have
followed, is hat of a surveyor, and found
myself helping to lay out one of the first
railroads ever run through Florida. We
were at work during the cold season,
when one evening, after a hard days
work, l rode into camp on my mule, and,
picking up a blanket which was lying
across a log, 1 buckled it around my
beasts body to prevent it catching cold.
Hardly had l done so when the mule be-
gan to indulge in a gymnastic perform
ance which would have put even an army
mule to the blush. 1 paid no attention at
first beyond passing a few obligatory re-
marks, but finally, as he kept up
his kicking and plunging, 1 determined
to take off the blanket and see If a branch
of thorny immora might not hay got en-
tangled in 1t and account for his restless
ness. Instead of a thorn l found a brown
creature about three Inches long hanging
OF for dear life to the mules back. One
of the men who knew the country rather
better than 1 said it was a mule killer,
and sure enough, inside of two hours Mr..
Mule was as dead as the proverbial her
ring. AS we sat round the camp fire that
night many were the stories told of the
havoc wrought by this insignificant look
ing pest. Not only mules but valuable
horses have fallen victims by the score to
this insect, which is variously known as
the %scruncher, DEVILS bull driver and whip
scorpion
The scientific description of the scor-
pion family states that they have an
elongated body, which, like that of all
members Of hat family, is divided into
segments, the last six of which, in the
case of the scorpion, are of equal size.
The tail is flexible and end in a sting.
The chelicera, or fangs, ARE short, and
end in a pincer like appendage, while the
palpi, or jaw appendages, are long and
also end in u forceps. Respiration is eff
fected by means Of two pairs of pulmo-
nary sacks, which communicate with the
air through four openings. A curious
thing to be noticed about the whip
scorpion is that the poisonous fangs
above referred to take the place of the
harmless feelers or antenne of beetles,
butterflies, moths and most of the crus-
tacea, such as Holsters and shrimps. A
cognate change is remarked in spiders, in
whom the antennB are replaced by poison
Gus jaws. The anterior pair of the legs of
the whip scorpion are also peculiar. They
are much thinner than the others, and the
feet are many jointed, so as to be capable
of being used as flexible organs of touch,
so that this ugly looking beast has turned
his teelers into poisonous jaws and his legs
into feelers. The whip consists of the
thin, vicious looking tail, which can be
dashed around like a rawhide in the hands