The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-07
PIERRE RAISES SPIDERS.
1T Is THE ONLY INDUSTRY OF THE
SORT IN THE COUNTRY.

Old Pennsylvania Frenchman's
Pets Can Make n New Wine Bottle
Look Old in "A short Time-They
Weave beautifully and Bring High
Priees-CobwebS Not Proof Of Age.
From the Philadelphia Press.
There is but one spider farm in the Uni
ted States. AS far as the writer can learn
there are only two in the world Entomol-
ogists have collected and raised spiders
for purposes Of scientific observation and
investigation, just as baciIi and other IN
pleasant animals are nurtured. Here ana
/ there "A spider has been made a pet of by
some lonely prisoner of Chfllon or the
Tombs, but spider farming as a money
making industry is yet in its infancy.
What in the world is done with a crop Of
spiders? you ask. One has only 10 90
four miles from Philadelphia on the old
Lancaster pike and ask for the farm of
Pierre Grantaire to see what can be found
nowhere else in this country. and abroad
only in a little French village in the De-
partment of the Loire.
Pierre Grantaire furnishes spiders at so
much per hundred for distribution in the
wine vaults of the merchant and the nou-
veaux richie. His trade is chiefly with the
wholesale merchant who is able to stock
a cellar with new, shining. freshly labelled
bottles and in three months see them
yelled IN llmy cobwebs, so that the effect
Of twenty years of storage is secured at a
small cost. The effect upan a customer can
be imagined and is hardly to be measured
in dollars and cents. II is q trffiinfs mat
ter 10 cover the bins kith dust. That effect
is easy to the veriest tyro in the wine
trade. But cobwebs-that is a different
matter-cobwebs spun from cork to cork.
cobwebs that drape the slender neck like
delicate lace when the flask is brought to
the light, the seal of years of slow mel
lowing and fruition.
The Lancaster pike is an old. old high
way that trembled TO the tramp of march
ing columns in the revolution. In one of
the low, stone farm houses, huge as to
chimney, lives Pierre Grantaire "A veteran
OF the French army, who was conscript-
cd as a middle-aged man from his fathers
farm IN 20 to fight the Prussians. For
ten years he has lived here a rather
unique figure among the matter-of fact
farmers around him. For the tricolor al
ways flies from his roof on the Four
teenth of July, and the colors are draped
half-mast on the anniversary of the day
that the hated Prussians marched into
Paris quarter Of century ago.
Old Grantaire has a wonderful vege-
table farm, and sends in the choicest
green STUFF that is displayed i'm the Phil
adelphia markets. His neighbors know
that he is a market gardener and also
raises mushrooms, and rather envy him
the returns from his SQUADS, that retail
at 60 cents pair this time of year. But
few of them know of the spider raising
industry, which makes a substantial part
of Pierres business. 1t is not to the old
mans interest to have this advertised
and he seldom takes a caller into the
two rooms of his dwelling where his null
ti-legged pets cover the walls and weave
their gossamer patterns everywhere.
1t was bit shuddering for the visitor
who had been brought up to smash a
spider with a slipper or whatever came
handiest. to be brought into a room where
there were spiders i'm front of him, spiders
to the rear of him, myriads of spiders on
every hand.
The walls were covered by wire squares
from six inches to a foot across like
magnitied sections of the wire fence used
to inclose poultry yards. Behind these
wire screens the walls had been covered
with rough planking. There were cracks
between the boards, apparently left with
design, and their weatherbeaten surfaces
were dotted with knotholes and splintered
crevices. Long tables running the length
Of the room were covered with small wire
frames wooden boxes and glass jars. All
Of these wires in the room were covered
by patterns of lace tracery, in the
s. -Ietrical outlines fashioned by the spi-
der artists, inspired by the mysterious in
Stinct which has made them weave their
flmy snares in the same fashion since
the world began. The sunlight streaemd
through the open door and the moon seem
ed hung with curtains of elhn-Woven
lacework. The king of this fairy palace
raped his stubby pipe against the door,
and the webs were dotted with black
spots the spiders scampered from
their retreats in the wall cracks and
a score of villainous looking pets as big
as half dollars emerged from their cram
MES on the table and clustered against
their glass roofing.
They think l feed them now" said
Pierre but L fool them for you. They
have brains, these little creatures, All
they are cunning! After you see them and
l tell you of them you will never crush
more; you will say: The spider can
teach me something. l viii watch him
He is diplomat, an architect, a mathe>
mattcian. His knowledge k worth hav-
ing. All, there is a fine follow running
on your neck. Don't knock him off He
will not bite you. They are harmless.
He wishes to give you bon jour and make
your acquaintance"
You wish to know of the business first ?
That is like you people-money first, then
the sentiment. There are 1900 spiders In
this room, all raising families and m!nding
their own business. Is not that a teaching
to the world and a lesson already? You
see in these frames / breed my pets, and
when the infants are big enough to run
about l take them in the next room, where
they can set up for themselves, as you say.
1t is from there l sell most. They are
great cannibals, my pets; they eat their
children and the children eat each other.
So must get a good price for those that
survive their childhood
1T is not all kinds of spiders that make
webs. There are those that live in holes
in the ground, and make for themselves
trap doors, and some make soft nests in
cracks, while others spin small homes in
the grass or in the room corner. No. IN
deed; have sought oIt kinds that weaves
themselves fine largo webs of lines and cir
Giles. They only lock artistic in the wine
cellar or on the boute.lle. They are the
selected ones. They are three families
the names of them, the Ep.ra Vulgaris. the
Zilla and the Nephila Plumipes, which the
entomologists will tell you are the grand
web spinners, the artists of the spider
/ world