Year: 1879

Virginia City Chronicle.]


The greatest event which has takel
place in Bonanza City, Nevada, since
the town was born was the fight late


ly between a scorpion and Il taran


tula. An witness of the affai


and an enthusiastic admirer of sucl
important contests gave the following
description Of the great struggle to ,
Chronicle reporter:


M've seed a good many fights since
| struck this section of the country


but yesterdays layout was the boss
For fun and excitement it equaled


in my opinion, the big prize fight
down the canyon that Tom Daily
took hand in years ago. The ring
was broken up, and every fellow with
q six-sllooter pulled and turned loose
on every thing in sight. We put the
two varmints into u wash bowl, and
when they both slid down to the bot
tom they had to fight and no mis-
take. There was little flat place in
the bottom of the bowl where they
could stand about four inches apart.
Well, as soon as they were put in
they stepped back few PAGES and
began to pipe each other off. The
tamntula seeing the scorpion, just
reared up on his hind legs and shook
his fist at him with all his hair on
end. Now, there is more of the solid
quintescence of hell in q tarantula to
the square eighth Of an inch than in
anything on earth, and when / saw
the critter rear up and give the scorp
the diff, | laid down five twenty dol
lar pieces on him and a tall fellow
covered 'em in a minute. knowed
| had that money dead. The scorp
didn't seem like he wanted any of
the pie at first, but after spell Of
thinkin' he sorter shook himself out
and got ready for business. The first
thing we knowed, biff! went tho
'tula plum into the scorp, and then
the fun began. The spider grabbed
him by the back of the neck and we
'spOsod for q moment he was goin'
to cllaw his head right off. His teeth
teeth is what | said-cOme out of
bis mouth for u quarter of an inch,
and grated like y buzz-saw, and |
began to feel sorry for the other lel-
low that | had bet with. wouldn't
been in the linin' o that scorp's boots
for the Sierra Nevada mine. All of q
sudden, however, the scorp braccd
himself, and whack went his tail
into the 'tula. tell you the spider
let 60 too quick and went tumblin'
across the bowl like a mule had
kicked him. thought he was gone,
but you bet he was on deck quick
enough, and he came to the scratch
again with blood in his eye. Then
come the big bout Of the whole bust
ness. Both of 'em spared around n
spell for an opening. The spider was
workin' his left nasty for a biF at the
scorf's ear, but whenever he let loose
the other threw up his claw and coun-
tered on his stomach, just like Halli-
han and Lynn for all the world. The
spider saw there were no more chro-
mos for him in the stand-up-fght and
SO he jumped in rough and tumble.
1t would made your blood run cold to
see the way them fellows chawe1 and
clawed each other for five minutes,
and the crowd around the bowl clean
crazy with excitement. threw up
another hundred on the spider, for I
could see he had grip on the scorp
that ever was. Why, he had his head
in chancery in nine places and about
sixteen grapevine locks on his legs.
They wrestled all the styles over
heard of-Connish, Lancashire, ,Graco-
Roman and collar and elbow. 1t was
regular tournament rolled into one.
The 'tula had the grip he had been
huntin' for some time. All of a sud
den, just as was reachin' down in
my pocket for another hundred dol
lars to plank up on the spider, tho
scorp switched his tail round and
slammed it in the SPIDERS belly about
quarter of an inch, held it there
awhile and then began to turn it
round, like he was boring diamond
drill into quartz ledge. The spider
got pale around the glls and looked
like he wanted a doctor, and quiet
ly let that hundred dollars slide back
where it belonged. Then the spider
let go fourteen under holds and laid
down like he wanted to rest. He rest
ed for about minute or SO, like q
little piece of wood shriveled up, and
the scorp strutted round and round,
like drum major on a dress parade.
The bets were ten to one on the scOrp
and no takers. All of sudden up
jumps the spider and goes for him