Rocky Ford enterprise., 1901-10-04

one single person that I knew or tha,
knew me In the old days has ever seen
me or spokc-I TO me since then until
ran across you this morning. There
was no one dependent upon me and no
one that cared. guess. You know
that was running pretty strong with
Mary Parr then for u tine. and al
though she Is married now"
What's that?"
well. ANT ashamed to say tha; I
thought lot OF her and II things had
gone differently may be would have
had n passenger run by this time. One
evening Mary and had little spat-
didn't amount to much, but We thought
II dld-and that settled II. Then /
heard that she was going with Henry
Weber. machlnist at the shops, and
SO | kind Of dropped out. Left the road
and worked all over for time. Then
got TO travelling about n bit. and soon
| was on the bum. You don't know
how easily fellow can drop into that,
especially n fellow that knows rail-
roading rs | do. have Travelled all
over these United States without a
cent. It's hard lines some times. but
don't know but 1t Is as good as any
other II u fellow don't care what be-
comes of him.
About my white head? Did you
ever hear that a mans hair could turn
gray in night. / never took much
stock in that. but here before you Is n
sample OF what can be done by fear. It
was in this way. had been wandering
| down through the eastern states some
three years ago. and one night land
ed at Lancaster. Pa. There was n
| young fellow hanging around the
Pennsylvania roads water tank and we
| decided to travel together. 1t was
warm even IL it was late winter and
We began nosing around the cars. The
| young fellow found n car door unsealed
and called to me. We climbed in and
! found ourselves in a car loaded with
bananas. 1t was pleasant enough and
we found straw on top OF the crates
and made it good place for sleeping
Before | went to sleep n brakeman
! came along and | heard him swearing
because the banana car had not Deen
sealed before t. left Newa I, and then
Heard MIN closing the door. 1t lid
not seem that | had been alseep very
long when was awakened by my COM
panion. Said he:
There is something in this car
"'Of course there is said |, and
about to fall asleep again.
Its something crawling. Don't
| you feel them?
Il did feel something on my hand
| and shook 1t off. Then dug a match
out of my pocket and struck t. That's
where my hair began to turn white.
The place was swarming with gigantic
spiders. | thought, but as the matcn
fickered and fiared l looked up at my
companion. His face was deadly white
and he hissed at me:
| " "Tarantulas.'
Then | understood in an instant.
The horrible things had been brought
from some southern country in the
punches of bananas. A bite from any
| one of the ugly creatures meant death.
| could hear my companions teeth
cha .tering and | knew that he was in
an agony of fear.
What's to be done?' he gasped
Sit perfectly STILL said |. Don't
move nor brush one of them off, even II
1t crawls on your face. Have you the
nerve to do it?'
No, no. My God. shall be insane
in a few minutes
81 knew that he was telling the truth
and felt that also had the same tc
fear. Our warm bodies probably at.
tracted the creatures. because they be.
gan to crawl over us, and to this day
have only to close my eyes and i
can see and feel those hairy legs and
little claws creeping on my flesh. Sud.