Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1885 — A Spider as Big as a Hat. [ARTICLE]

A Spider as Big as a Hat.

Tlie largest tarantula} ever saw paid me a visit one evening and v akled into the parlor without waiting to be announced. Several Nassau gentlemen were spending the evening with me, and We were talking and thinking about anything but spiders, when somebody exclaimed: “There’s a gropnd spider!” If a hand grunade had come through the ceiling and dropped on the floor none of us could have been on our feet quicker. Everybody jumped back two or three feet, for the beast was right in our midst. He was on the floor at our feet, not a yard away from us, and he walked in as unconcernedly as ble. He was, without any exaggeration, as large as the crown of a man’s hat. His legs looked as thick as the neck of a small bottle, and they were covered with coal-black hairs, some of which were more than an inch long. Fortunately I was following a Nassau custom at that time, leaving the floors uncarpeted, and we had no trouble seeing him against the light colored boards. There was immediately a rush for walking-sticks and umbrellas to fight him with ; but one gentleman,with great presence of mind, picked up a large ottoman that stood near and threw it at him. That one shot put an end to the tarantula’s career. 1 don’t know whether he was a grandfather spider or why be-was v so large; but lie was big enough to make anybody, even people used to seeing them, shudder to look at him. He was soft, and the ottoman left nothing of him but a big spot on the floor, larger than the rim of a hat, and a little heap of black hair and legs. He was too badly used up to be kept as a curiosity, so we pitched him out and went on with the conversation.— Nassau Correspondence New York Times.