Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1882 — Battle With a Tarantula. [ARTICLE]

Battle With a Tarantula.

The tarantula is the desperado of the spider family. It frequently attains the Size of the hand, and with its great, glaring black eyes ahd frightful claws seldom fails to present an appearance so formidable that ji sensitive lady, even if used to seeing'the tarantula, will scream at the sight. The tarantula is. In fact, only a big spider, and usually ■sakes its home in the open prairie, dwelling with his family in a nest concealed beneath the tall grass. If you tackle him jn his retreat you will very soon repent your v temerity, for lie springs at you like a tiger, jumping to an astonishing height—sometimes three or four feet He is one of the most pbisohqus of the family of the araneidot, and his bite is said to be more fatal than that of the rattlesnake. ’ In a settlement called Grapeville Prairie, near Fort Worth, some time ago, the sou of a farmer named Featherstone was one day occupied in gathering rocks by the roadside. Upon overturning a large, flat rock he was suddenly confronted by a large tarantula, the size of a man's hand, snugly ensconced in his nest along with a number of young tarantulas. The big Jose was yellow and black striped,'ana displayed the same inimitable color that nature bestows on the “beautififl Make." Seizing a good-sized stick, Master J'eatherslone attacked the enemy in his Stronghold, and was met with unexpected resistance; be succeeded in breaking off eno leg, or rather e'aw of the devil-fish df dryland, but the tarantula, enraged, sprang-upon the agfercsaor, and, quick as thought* with bis

great black eyas guttering with fiendish ferocity, fastened himself oh the boy’s hand, and arm, both’of which swelled to three times their natural size—so virulent is the poison of this desperado of the prairies. The boy, 1 however succeeded in killing the tarantula <•