Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1904 — THE SPIDER’S LIFE-LINE. [ARTICLE]

THE SPIDER’S LIFE-LINE.

The more man learns of the ways of animals the more he respects them, nnd the more he feels that they are embodiments of the wisdom of the Creator as truly as man himself. Therefore, although man’s experiments with the mute creatures are sometimes a trifle hard on them, there Is an ultimate gain in understanding and sympathy. A writer in the Hearth tells of an experiment he made on a spider. I took a wash basin and fastened In it a stick upright like a mast, and then poured water enough to turn the stick into an island for my spider, which I named Crusoe.

I put him on the mast. As soon ns he was fairly cast away he anxiously commenced running round to find the mainland. He would scamper down the mast to the water, stick out a foot, get it wet, shake it, run round the stick and try the other side, and then run back to the top again. Pretty soon it became n serious matter to Mr. Crusoe, and he sat down to think it over. A% I was afraid he might be hungry, I put molasses on the mast. A fly came, but Crusoe wasn’t hungry for flies just then. He was homesick for his web In the corner of the wood shed. He went slowly down the pole to the water and touched It all around, shaking his feet as pussy does when she wets her stockings in the damp grass. Suddenly a thought appeared to strike biro. Up he went, like a rocket, to the top, and began to play circus. He held one foot in the air, then another, and turned round two or three times.

He got excited, and nearly stood on his bead before I found out what he had discovered, and that was that the draft of air made by the fire would carry a line ashore on which lie could escape from his desert island. He pushed out a thread that went floating in the air, and lengthened and lengthened until at last it caught on the table. Then he hauled on the rope until it was tight, struck it several times to see If it was strong enough to hold him, and walked ashore. I decided that he had earned his liberty.