The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-25
ANGLING FOR TARANTULAS.
A SPORT TO DE ENJOYED BEST IN
THE SIERRA FOOTHILLS.

of TnrantuIas.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
A young man wearing a seersucker coat
and with great excitement mingling with
big beads of perspiration on his face came
into the smoking car of a Pennsylvania
Railroad train as it was climbing the AL
legheny mountains a few days ago. He
carried a dinner bucket in one hapd and
pressed its lid down with the other. He
was the express messenger of the train.
i've ketched somethin'," he exclaimed.
ken anybody tell what kind of pup II
is?"
A big man with long whiskers and a
Panama hat and smoking strong plug to-
bacco in a porcelain pipe, said:
'Lemme see it,"
The young man held the dinner bucket at
arms length and raised the lid. The big
man looked in the bucket
"A trantuly, by CEDAR" he said, and
took the bucket from the young mans
hand. "A t'rantuly, sure as guns. A
citizen of Bermudy, this chap is An a
beauty too"
The big man got out of his seat and
passed the open dinner bucket around
among the passengers. 1t was nearly
half full of something that seemed to be
all hair and claws and eyes. No one seem
ed pleased at the sight of it except the big
man with the long whiskers. 1t was a
tarantula, sure enough. There was
unanimous request made by the passen-
gers in the car that the hideous spider be
pitched out of a window. But the big
man gazed at the deadly insect with I'M
disturbed interest.
''Where'd you run agin him?" he asked
the express messenger.
He came out of a bunch of bananas
in my car" said the young man. Il cor
nered him and drove him into the bucket.
What's he good for?"
He's first-class benefactor to the
coroner" replied the big man. IF there's
any feller citizen O. yours that you'd like
to see planted, take this stowaway from
Bermudy and turn him loose in your
friends garden If your friend fools
around much in his garden you'll see Grape
on his door in less than two days. I've
herd folks say that these t'rantulies is
pizen, and 1 reckon they are to them thar
1 war you, young man, I'd take this chap
and let your locomotive run over him. a
good, strong locomotive is about the only
thing that kin tackle one O. these chaps
and make success of it,"
The big man handed the dinner bucket
back to its owner, who took it and car
RED it away After the train left the next
station he came in and said that the loco
motive had met the tarantula, and that
twenty feet of grease on the rail, a
quart or so of legs and hair indicated that
the locomotive had won.
THAT was q Bermudy trant' said the
big man to a passenger in the next seat
They're heap bigger than the trans of
the adobe grounds on the Sierra foothills,
but they don't carry any more fire in their
jaws. I've seen EN- in Nassau as big as
mans hat Now, 1 reckon you'd never
think that fishin for t'rantulies was very
fascinating sport, would your
About as enjoyable as bobbing for a
rattlesnake, l should think" replied the
passenger in the next seat.
oh it's a heap more fun" exclaimed
the big man, examining some greasy chips
of blacSplug tobacco into his pipe. PLAY
in q trantuly on a timber rod can give a
lot o pin'ts to tugGln al a RATHER on a
bob I'll bet you didn't know, even, that
some folks drives ager off by bobbin for
rattlers:"
The passenger in the next seat said Moth
ing, but his eyes began to bulge and he
hitched away TO the end of his seat. The
big man lit his pipe and hitched up even
with the passenger again.
eyes, indeedr' said he. "Trants and
rattlers does a heap to'ard hustlin' dull
care away out among the foothills. /
dunno what I'd "a done without EN-. But
t'rant flshln' Is the boss. Never out on the
foothills of the Sierras I reckon? Thought
~ I 10
centipedes, though. l was used to them,
kind of having spent year or so with
en- in Bermudy and Nassau. Then an
other drawback to the adobe grounds in
the foothills was that they was a little
short of scorpions. There was few there,
but not enough to make 1t cheerful, and
it'd been trife dull for me out there If it
hadn't been for t'rants. They was thick
as flies. When the nights was warm they
was out on the promenade so thick that
you had to be careful or you'd step on
some of 'em and hurt EN-. Many a morn
ing I've seen trantuly hair enough on the
ground TO temper a square rod of mortar,
they havin shed it In free fights twixt
themselves durin' the night.
"rhe proper bait for a trantuly Is a
brown lizard that's a native of the soil
out among the foothills You needn t
hitch away stranger; / hain't got none of
that bait on me; and it'd be as harmless
as a wooden toothpick if 1 had. There
hain't nothln' that wrlggles that the adobe
ground trantuly dOtes on more than he
does on them brown lizards. And the fun
niest part of it is that he nevere made a
meal off o. one o 'em yet l reckon you
want to know how that can be. The how
of it is that them lizards kin shake them
selves loose from their tail as slick and
square as you kin snap a pipe stem. They
are swift on their feet, but t'rantuly Is
swifter and he always grabs 'em by the
tail. Quicker than wink the lizard snaps
a couple of inches of his tail and goes
right on. There never was a full-grown
trantuly that hain't had a lizard trot away
from him and leave nothn' but its tail
in his mouth hundreds of times and yet
every time it is done the t'rants eyes hang
out on his whislSers in astonishment and
he don't seem able to understand It, But
he bolts the tail oil the same and then
looks around for another lizard 10 tackle
Now i'm giving the lizard the power to
whislS its tail off, nature not only provided
for the safety of the lizard, but she done
the t'rantuly favor. The loss of the tall
don't hurt the lizard, for it grows another
one In a few days, but If the tail didn't
come loose Il would go hard with the
t'rant The lizards tail is a wholesome
dish for the t'rant, but If 1t shouldn't hap
pen to come off and the trant should COB
Bile the whole lizard, it'd be goodby. t'rantl
There's some kind of iuice in tho iizardi.