SCORPION v. TARANTULA.

Kumara Times, Issue 1046, 6 February 1880, Page 4

SCORPION v. TARANTULA.

A FIERCE AND DEADLY CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO VENOMOUS INSECTS. [VIRGINIA CITY CHRONICLE. ] The greatest event- which has taken place in Bonanza City since the town was born was the fight on Saturday last been a scorpion and a tarantula. An eyewitness of the affair gave the following description of the great struggle to a reporter yesterday : "I've seen a good many fights since I struck this section of the country, but yesterday's lay out was the boss. For fun and excitement it equalled, in my opinion, the big prize tight down the canon that Tom Daly took a hand in years ago. The ring was broken up, and every fellow with a six-shooter pulled and turned on everything in sight. " We put the two varmints into a washbowl, and when they both slid down to the bottom they had to fight, and no mistake. There was a little flat place at the bottom of the bowl where they could stand about four inches apart. Well, as soon as they were put in they stepped back a few paces and began to pipe each other off. The tarantula, seeing the scorpion, just reared up on its hind legs and shook his 6st at him, with all his hair.on end. Now, there is more of the solid quintessence of hell in the tarantula to the square inch than in anything on earth, and when I saw the critter rear up and give the scorpion the diff, I laid down five twenty-dollar pieces on him, and a tall feller covered them in a minute. I knowed I had the money dead. The scorp did't seem like he wanted only of the pie at first, but, after a spell of thinkin,' he sorter shook himself out and got ready for business. "The first thiug we knowd, biff! went the tula plum into the scorp, and then the fun begun. The spider grabbed him by the back of the neck, and we s'posed for a while he was going to chaw his head right off. His teeth—teeth is what I said—come out of his mouth for a quarter of an inch, and grated like a buzz-saw, and 1 begun to feel sorry for the other fellow that I bet with. I wouldn't been in the Hnin' o' that scorp's boots for the Sierra Nevada mine. All of a sudden, however, the scorp braced himself, and whack ! went his tail against 'tula.. I tell you the spider let go to quick, and went tumblin' across the bowl like a mule had kicked him. I 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 business. Both of 'em sparred around a spell for an opening. The spider was workin' his left nasty for a biff at the scorp's ear, but whenever he let loose the other threw up his claw and countered on hi 3 stomach, just like Hallinan and Lynn for the world. The spider saw there were no chromas for him in a stand-up fight, and so he jumped in rough-and-tumble. It would make your blood run cold to see the way them fellers chawed and clawed each other for five minutes, and the crowd round the bowl clean crazy with excitement. I threw up another hundred on the spider, for I could see he had the durndest grip on the scorp that ever was. Why he had his head in chancery in nine places, and about sixteen grapevine locks ou his legs. "They wrestled all the styles ever heard of—Cornish, Lancashire, GrsecoRoman, and collar-and-elbow. It was a regular tournament rolled into one. The 'tula had the grip he had-been hunting for for some time. All of a sudden, just as 1 was reaching down in my pocket for another hundred dollars to plank upon the spider, the scorp switched its tail round and slammed it into the spider's belly about a quarter of an inch, held it there awhile, and thett began to turn it round like if he was boring a diamond drill into a quartz ledge. The spider °ot pale round the* gills and looked like he wanted a doctor, and I quieMy let the hundred dollars slide back where it belonged. Then the spider let g 0 fourteen underholds, and laid down like he wanted a rest. He rested for about a minute or so like a little piece of wool shrivelled up, and the scorp strutted round like a drummajor on a dress parade. &'The beta were ten to one on the scarp and no takers. All of a sudden up jumps the spider and goes for him again. It appeared to me like the beast had "only just made wp his mind to fight, and the way he made for the scorp was like a thousand o' bricks tumbling on to a child, "When I saw him get down fairly to work I bet the third hundred, and felt somehow like when he heard me clink the coin tt would give him a little moral backin'. You could hear the scorp's shell crack like a schoolboy chawing peanuts at a church fair. The spider had it all his own way for a spell, and getting' his work in fine when the pceky scorp hunted up the tame hole his tail was in before and got it there again. He'd been licked in another minute if he hadn't but that j saved his bacon, and the spider gritted his teeth a few times and keeled over and died. This don't shake my faith In tarantulas, however. I've got a two ounce spider that I'll match against any scorpion in Storey County next Sunday for five hundred aside." Here the man produced a box and showed a tarantula that looked as if it would be able to whip a bull-dog. When he left he assurred the reporter, confi. dentially, that betting on the spider " a dead sure thing."