Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1899-08-04

SPIDER or bug there was brief tussle
and dead foe. But there was bigger
game in store for the invaders.
The star battle was with an i'm.
mence centiped. one of the blush gray
kind. about seven inches long and rs
big around as your middle finger. He
darted out of u hole like blue streak,
evidently trusting to his speed and SUI
perior strength to run through the en-
emy's ranks. But he didn't go three
feet before he was stopped. Ants liter
ally covered him He turned on him.
self and swept them from his back, but
before he had gone another three feet
he was buried beneath another swarm
Of his plucky assailants. And then
began tight to the death. Again and
again he swept his tormentors from his
back while from all sides hurried streams
of ants to take the place of fallen CON-
rades. The wriggling of the big fellow
became less violent as the fight pro-
crossed, and finally, after an effort,
which | we'll knew was desperate last
one, he remained quiet while what little
life was left in him was bitten out of
him. Later, when the army had re-
treated and when we had swept up the
ceniipeds and scorpions and lizards and
a tarantula which the ant army had
vanquished, we put the hero of the star
battle under quartz magnlfying glass.
The bodies of dead ants still chung to
their foe. From his back, from his leg,
from wherever there was a chance for
a mold the bodies of ants dangIed, hold
ing on, suppose, by their teeth.
perhaps you wonder what would
happen to man who would undertake
to fight AN army of ants, assuming, of
course, that the man relies on his nat
ural means of defense-his hands and
feet. | can best illustrate that by the
rare story of an unfortunate who was
brought to hospital in Caracas shortly
before my return home. The man was
coolie who had worked on cocoa
plantation in a creek not far from Cara
cas-. Following habit of some Of his
countrymen, the coolie, owing to the
heat, had left his camp and stretched
on the ground to sleep outdoors. Ex-
actly what followed no one can say
with certainty. Presumably he was
surrounded and covered by an army of
ants before he awakened. At dawn the
shrieks and cries of man in agony
aroused the inmates of the camp, who
ran out to learn the cause.
The man was gesticulating wildly
and calling for help, while he squirm-
ed and writhed and slapped his face and
neck and chest and legs in mad effort
to slap himself all over at once. He
was standing in the midst of an army
VI ohbo anu wac bOO uiobidOtC Will
pain to run away. Then he did exact
ly what panther or leopard does when
he is being overcome. The man threw
himself TO the ground to roll his tor
mentor to death. A single active white
man could have saved the poor wretch,
but the stupetied, barelegged coolies
dared not, or thought not, of rescue,
while the victim himself was too crazed
with agony to seek other than instant
relief. From slight personal experl.
ence | know the poor fellow was burn
ing in fire which would take hours to
kill him.
FINALLY bystander regained his
wits and rushed into the midst of the
army and dragged the man after him
and threw him into the creek. The
rescue came to late. The victim bel
came unconscious. His velvety, brown
skin was pink mass of raw bites.
When he came to the hospital, he was
bound hand and foot, maniac, whose
continuous notion was that he was be-
ing eaten by ants."-New York Sun