Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-09-05
SCORPIONS.
Their Abundance in Lower Mexico A
Pleasant Place in Which to Sleep.


"f ever you should happen to 90
down into lower Mexico" said L. T.
Stanley, the electrician. to New York
oun man, land should notice that
your bed was set up on inverted tin
pans, as you have seen the four cor
ners OF corn cribs fixed to keep out
rats, and that the bed had sheet
stretched above, running to peak at
the top like the roof of a house. don't
say word. but get right in and 90 to
sleep as soon as you get in, and if YOU
should hear something drop on the
sheet roof above you and roll down
and tumble on the floor at the side of
the bed, lie still. By and bv Won will
hear the same drop and roll and tum-
bic, and it won't be long before i'm
be drop, drop. drop, and roll, roll.
roll, and pink, pink, pink on the
floor. Don't get up; if you do you
might think you were struck by light
ming as soon as you put your feet on
the floor, for the chances are that YOU
would step on a scorpion the first
thing, and the scorpion has a singer
that he carries for instant and effective
use. Scorpions are just about as plenty
Whereabouts as flies are up home They
hide by day and attend to business at
night.
The scorpion is crab with snakes
tail with spur on the end of it. 1t
likes to get in bed with folks. and if
it wasn't for the tin pans on the bed
posts it would climb up and get in
with you that way, and if the bed
wasn't rooted with the sheet it would
drop on you from the ceiling. When
you get up in the morning you will
be apt to find few quarts of dead
scorpions lying on the floor in front of
the bed They all committed suicide.
After trying to get into bed with YOU
a few times and being tumbled off The
sheet every time or stopped by the tin
pans they got mad and stuck their
singers in their heads and killed them
selves. A scorpion will commit sui
eide on the slightest provocation. 1t
has temper as hot and as quick as
kerosene on a kitchen fire.
If one scorpion is passing by an
other one and happens to touch it
there's fight at once and two dead
scorpions are the result. Put 100
scorpions in an inclosure and throw a
little stick or little piece of dirt
among them and the scorpion that is
nearest to where the stick or dirt falls
will turn and stick his spur into his
nearest neighbor and in less than two
seconds the entire one hundred will be
mixed up in the fight. The way their
singers and claws and legs will fly is
a sight to see. As long as there is one
scorpion alive the fight goes on, for if
one happens to survive the other nine
ty-nine he will pitch in and have it
out with himself and the first thing he
knows he is dead.
cit is fact that scorpions, or al
carans as the MeXicans call them, are
at certain seasons of the year as num-
erous, almost, as flies. They are with
in the cracks of the walls, between the
brick of the tiles on the floor, hiding
inside your garments, darling every
where with inconceivable rapidity,
their tails which hold the sting. ready
to fly up with dangerous effect upon
the slightest provocation. Turn a
corner of a rug or table-spread and
you disturb a flourishing colony of
them. Shake your SHOES in the morn
ing and out they flop. Throw your
bath-sponge into the water and half
dozen of them dart out of its cool
depths, into which they had lain them
selves away during the night.
1t is not often that you see one of
the mahogany-hued reptiles that is
more than two inches long, but they
sometimes show up with the formida-
BILE proportions of a fve-inch length
aud all that it implies. There is a
smaller variety than the mahogany
scorpion. This one is yellow and he
is ten times more vicious and danger
Gus. 1t is at midday that the bite or
sting of these yenomous little pests is
most feared, as the natives say it is
then the most poisonous. The desert
ed old mines of Durango are simply
scorpion hives. They have bred and
increased there undisturbed for centu-
ries.
A few years ago the government
took official notice of their deadly
presence and placed bounty on
them, which is paid on the presenta-
ton of a scorpions tail and sting at
the office of the government agent.
Many natives carry brass tube, and
in case of bite from scorpion it is
pressed over the wound, on which it
acts like the bleeding-cup of the sur
geon, and draws the poisoned blood
out. A hollow key has been used sue
cessfully in the same way.
Victims of the yellow scorpions bite
have been known to lie for days in
commissions, foaming at the mouth,
and with stomach and limbs swollen
as in dropsy. Others suffer no worse
consequences than they might from an
ordinary bee sting. Brandy taken I'M
til stupefaction follows is a favorite
remedy for scorpion bites in Mexico,
and ammonia is also given with good
results. There is nothing the Mexican
or Texan fears more than the yellow
or black scorpion of Durango except
the bloating rattlesnake of the Staked
plains, and that is probably the most
deadly reptile on the American CONT
nent."