The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-16

| lHc ClliZt1lS Ol Llldl IeSlOIl NciC NoIt " | indulge in that Joe Lathrop was called
 upon to exercise nerve of peculiar
 brand. Joe had come into that delecta- /, ble country with $500 in gold, which he was very solcitous about, for it was his | intention to make his fortune with It
 by investing it in gold mine friend
 of his said he had discovered few
 miles from Pueblo. Joe and his friend,
 with others travellers, were on their way to Pueblo in the coach that carried | the maiE and it was suddenly stopped { in one of the widest spots in all that country and three rough looking in
 dividuals, each at the butt end ot a rifle, ordered the passengers to tumble
 out and line up, with their hands above
 their heads. One of the three robbers
 was set to guard the held-up passeng-
 CTS, with emphatic instructions to blow
 a hole through the first one of them i that moved hand or foot, while the 1 other two footed the stage. Joe was scared. He had stood there in a strained position for five minutes, looking
 square into the muzzle of a rifle, when
 he rolled his eyes downward to get
 more pleasing thing to look at, but he
 didn't. He saw a centipede at least
 eight inches long, one of the terrors of
 that region hurrying along directly to-
 ward town.
 Tt was soon at the tip of his shoe,
 but, to his intense relief, it avoided the
 obstacle and passed on. It only went as
 far as his heel, though Then it climbed
 upward, and the first thing Joe knew
 the hideous and deadly thing was
 climbing his leg under his trousers, as
 he knew by the pricking of the long rows of shap claws in his flesh. Joe knew that the least movement he made would disturb the santitive and acrimonious varmint and it would in stantly sink every on of its many claws into his flesh and squirt into his blood from each claw it's quota of deadly venom. And there Joe stood, doubly heldup. If he moved a muscle of his leg the centipede would fill him with poison. Slowly the centipede climbed the leg, leaving it's itching, burning track in the flesh, something in itself al most beyond human endurance. Joe didn't know how soon the centipele might get mad at something and sock it's venom points into him anyhow, but he did know that the robbar would soon be through with searching his pockets, while the centipede was exploring him. thus disturbing it and inducing it's stinging him.
 "The centipeda made its way deliber- ately up one leg, then across Joes back to the other leg, down which it moved more dliberately still paus!ng now and then as if it had a notion to go up n in If did cto ortb hack mn oppa and Joe was on the point of dropping hand in hope that the robber would him out of his misery by shooting him, when the centipede turned and went down again, and kept on going until it came out at the bottom of the trousers leg and went scurrying away. Joe shut his eyes and gave one long breath, and was on the point of relieving himself with a yell, let the consequences be what they might, when the individual with the ri- tle exclaimed,
 Say pard. you got more nerve than six-hoss wagon could lug! Damned if I could stood that feller a wiggin' over me myselfl'
 That cold -blooded reprobata had | seen the centipede go up into Joe's | trousers leg, and knew all the while | what Joe was suffering, and just stood there and watched what the result was | going to be! The robbers made off as soon as they had secured all the plum der, and the footed stage and passang- CTS went on to Pueblo. And that was the sort of nerve Joe Lathrop had to have with him that memorable day A year afterWard Joe was one of a posse | that pursued gang of robbers near | North Juan, in Nevada. Joe discovered 1 one of the gang hiding behind a rock. | He shot the desperado dead, and when | he saw his face Joe declared he was happy, for he recognized the man who | had held him up during the Pueblo i stage robbery that time and eloated | over his experience with the centipede." New York Sun.