The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-07-26
THE MEXICAN WASP.
How the Insect Cured Very Bad
Case of Rheumatism.

'I see they're talking about the virus
of a certain Mexican spider being a sure
cure or preventive of typhus," said
well-known railway passenger agent to
a New York Sun man. Some people
may doubt II, but, knowing what / do
about the curative properties of another
cheerful creature that makes Mexico its
home, I'd be willing to back that spider
to knock out the .typhus or anything
else. The insect that doctored me is an
interesting specimen Of the wasp family.
/ forget what the Mexican name for il
is, but translated II means tarantula
hawk, and 1t is called that because 1t
has a way of swooping down on the
tarantula and disposing of IL as easily
as chicken hawk can do UP pullet.
This wasp is the only thing that big
hairy spider is afraid of. The tarantula
will tackle a rattlesnake or bear with
out moments hesitation, but il turns
tail and digs for home if there is
tarantula hawk buZzing anywhere in
it's vicinity. The wasp does not eat the
tarantula. II simply drops down on it
and socks it's singer in the spider.
whereupon the spider turns up its toes.
The wasp lays a couple of eggs in the
1eshy part of the tarantulas big body
and then buries its victim The curious
part of it is the spider isn't dead. 1t
is only paralyzed or embalmed, so to
speak with all its vital juices intact.
The wasp's eggs hatch out grubs in the
course of time, and the grubs go right to
work dining on the tarantula's preserved
meat.
when they have eaten it all they
bore out of the spiders shell, dig their
way to the surface and become wasps
themselves. and start out for business
on their own account.
This interesting wasp Is something
like "A couple of inches long when it is OF
age, and has a StinEer with close on to
a inch of raIfnprp This CT &c r1rha
you might call a nonforfeitable stinger
for il doesn't yield itself mp at single
plunge, like honey bee does it's singer
but is good for an all days job. The
Mexican wasp is the color of "A bay
horse, and they say down there that it
will go ten miles out of it's way to sting
a man. The natives get fat on cent?
pede stings, but they will dive for cover
when the wasp of that favored cline
heaves to. / had the honor to my ever
lasting joy of being tasted once by one
of these blessings in disguise. Why to
my everlasting joy? i will tell you.
For fifteen years / had been a big ia
vorite with the rheumatism. 1t seemed
willing, even anxious, to put all it had
on me at any time. L had tried pills,
and liniments. and batteries, and springs
and every other unfailing remedy for
rheumatism. but still it chung to me
closer and closer. A couple of years
ago a friend of mine told me to go down
into Mexico and try the climate there,
because, he said. he knew a man who
had gone there almost tied in a knot by
rheumatism, and he got we'll
so ] went down into Mexico, and
promptly and steadily got worse every
day. L was getting ready to come back
home and die, If could, when one day
a Mexican wasp, plying me l suppose.
came along and socked his singer into
me. He sampled me on the cheek, and
aIf
for twenty years. my cheek was feazed
by that wasp. At first l felt as If the
whole of one side of my head was asleep
l had heard all about the way those
wasps treated tarantulas, and l said:
g." Great Scott, Is this wasp going to
embalm me, fill me full of eggs, and
serve me as free lunch to its incipient
progeny
My face kept on getting cold, and l
couldn't make it hurt by pinching it or
pricking it with a pin. In the horror of
what | supposed was my impending fate,
l lost all recollection of the rheumatic
pains that had been turning me almost
inside out only minute or so before.
The cheering numbness and GOODNESS in
my face and head didn't last long They
quit as suddenly as they came, and were
succeeded by pang such as imagine
might follow the insertion of a wire
into a sensitive part of your body, and
stood at white heat. L clawed my jaw
and pulled my hair and pranced around
and hOwled. Five minutes before it was
all 1 could do to hobbls around with a
cane.
"A sympathetic nature told me that |
would keep on feeling that way for
couple of hours / did, for nobody would
lend me a pistol. / could have laid down
and died with willingness, and moaned
when they told me that the sting of
the Mexican wasp never killed anybody.
The two hours that 1 kept company with
the aftermath of that wasp's plunger
were two hours of mortal agony But
the pain went away after that so sud
denly that l went to sleep and had de-
lightful dreams. When / awOke | felt
like a new man. The cheek hadn't
swollen particle during the entire
course of the treatment, but ii was as
sore as nine boils for two days.
Now, queer as it may seem, L couldn't
imagine what it was about me that felt
so new and strange for those two days.
and then all of sudden it hit me that
it was because my rheumatism was gone.
There was no more sign of rheumatism
about me than there is about a kitten.
And there never has been from that day
to this. / don't care how bad a man
has rheumatism, let him go down and
take the MeXican-wasp-sting treatment,
and he'll forget he ever had ii. / know
what the Mexican wasp can do in rheu-
matism, and so I'm willing to back that
Mexican spider at big odds against
typhus. and you may tell EN- that