St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-16
SELLS TO WINE NERO GIANTS.
These Pets Can Soon Make q
New Wine Bottle Look
Old. =. 81
THEY WEAVE BEAUTIFULLY
And Sometimes Bring High
Prices--CobWebs Are Not
Proof Of Age. = =

delphia Press. AS far as the writer
can learn there are only Two III
the world. Entomologists nave
collected and raised spiders for pur-
poses of scientific observation and
investigation, just as baciil1 ana
other unpleasant animals are nur-
tured. Here and there spider mas
been ma lie a pet of ny some l,nely
prisoner of Chil,on or the Tombs,
but spider farming as a money
making industry is yet in its IN
fancy. What in the world is done
with a crop of spiders? you ask.
One has only to go 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 little French vii
liage in the department of the
Loire.
Pierre Grantaire furnishes spiders
at so much per hundred for dis
tribution in the wine vaults of the
merchant and the nouveau richie.
His trade is chiefly with the whole
sale merchant, who is able to stock
a cellar with new, shining, freshly
labeled bottles and in three months
see them yelled in filmy cobwebs,
so that the effect of twenty years
of storage is secured at a small
cost. The effect upon a customer
can be imagined and is hardly to
be measured in dollars and cents
1t is a trif1ing matter to cover the
to the veriest tyro in the wine
trade. But cobwebs-that is diff
ferent 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
highway that trembled to the tramp
of marching columns in the Revolui
ton. In one of the low, stone farm
houses, huge as to chimney, lives
Pierre 'Grantaire, veteran of the
French army, who was conscripted
as a middle aged man from his
fathers farm in 10 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 always
flies from his roof on the Fourteenth
of July, and the colors are draped
half mast on the anniv of the
day that the hated Prussians
marched into Paris a quarter of a
century ago.
Old Grantaire has a wonderful
vegetable farm, and sends in the
choicest green stuff that is dis.
played in the Philadelphia mar
kets. His neighbors know that he
is a market gardner, ard also raises
mushrooms, and rather envy
him the returns from his SQUADS
that retail at 60 cents a pair this
time of year. But few of them
know of the spider raising industry.
which makes substantial part of
Plerre's business. 1t is not to the old
mans interest to have this adyer-
tised, and he seldom takes a caller
into the two rooms of his dwelling
where his multi-legged pets cover
the walls and weave their gossamer
patterns everywhere
1t was. a bit shuddering for the
visitor, who had been brought I'D to
smash a spider with a slipper or
whatever came handiest, to be
brought into a room where there
were spiders in 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 magnified sections nf
the wire fence used to inclose poul-
try yards. Behind these wire
screens the walls had been covered
with rough planking. There were
cracks between the boards, ap-
parently left with design, and their
weather beaten 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 roorI were covered ever
by patterns of lace tracery. in the
geometrical outlines fashioned nv
the spider artists, inspired by the
mysterious instinct which has rlaflo
them weave their f1lmy shares in
the same fashion sInca the world
began. The sunlight stres1ned
through the opec door AMI the room
seemed hung with curtains of elfin-
woven lacewors. The king nf this
fairy palace raped his stubbv nine
against the door, and the webs were
dotted with black spots rs tba
SPIDERS scampered from their re-
treats in the wall cracks and n
score OF villainous looking petc as
big as half dollars emerged fr m,
their crannies on the table and and
clustered against their glass roof
ing.
They think I feed them now ',
SAID Pierre, 'sbut 1 fool them for
you. They have brains, these little
creatures. All, they are cunning,
After you will never, crush them
more; you will say: ''The spider can
teach me something. 1 will watch
him. He is diplomat, an architect
mathematician. His KNOWLEDGE
IS worth having All, there is a fine
fellow running on your neck. Don,t
knock him off. He will not bite Won
They are harmless He wishes 70
give you bon jour and make vo,,,.
acquaintance
You wish to know of the business
first? That is like you peopfe-noney
f1rst then the sentiment. There "a
1000 spiders in this room, all RAISING
families and minding their own busi.
ness. is not that teaching to the
world and a lesson already? You
see, In these frames 1 breed my pets.
and when the enfants are big enough
to run about | take them in the next
room, where they can set up for them
selves, as you say. It is from there
sell most. They are great canni-