Sioux City register. [volume] (Sioux City, Iowa) 1858-1871, 1859-12-24
SOM LETTING ABOUT RATS.

vast numbers in different portions Of the
West, renders anything relating to it, No !.
ural history interesting. Tousasnsi. from
whose writings the sub;oinsd article il
taken, leone Of the most pleasant, and at
the came time eccentric writer's Of the day:
~ could write twenty volumes on the rat.
There is no richer subject, not the gutter
or house rat, another category Of Ruawsrs,
whose history has also great interest aud
| charms. The rat tells the grandeur and
decay of the blooded sris.ocracy.
Each horde has its rat; to every sccu-
patton of the subsoil. There has bees the
| rat Of thesHuns! There Is the Norman
rat Essish) aud the Tartar rat husco-
wife .-.-....
| Every year; late in the season, when the
treasures of autumn begin ~ grow scarce,
bloody civil wars, whose tumut reaches
Us in the upper regions, break forth 10 the
tribes Of the Campagnols, the Jennings,
tie Hamstsrs, the Shrew mice. The Ham
ster penetrates into the burrow Of neigh
Dor, kills him, devours him, and takes pos
session Of his winter stores. The fury OF
!
rabbit does not entirely clear itself Of
the general accusation of cannibalism,
| which hangs over all the Ssubteransan spe-
cies. All initiate the example Of the
! mode, which delights to plunge ito long
pointed snout into the bowels Of the neigh.
! boring mole which it has slain, and drinks
with exulta,ion the blood Of its victim
! NJ. Button and others have related many
anecdotes of the tilial virtues Of rats, and
the patrisrchsl manners Of the MOLE
| Pstriarchal what charming word the
history of those veneratsd patriarshs who
are offered to the admiration Of our cred
ulous infancy is in fact 80 full Of edifying
examples, of coujugal happiness and do
m sstic virtues
All the families Of rats, endowed with
prodigious fecsudity, are the emblems OF
those miserable and prolific populations
which now cover the globe, and which
hunger and the hatred OF labor urge to
make war on each other, and to dsvour
| each other.
The rat, like the barbarian, is = scourGe
which God sends on to punish them for
their confusion Of instincts aud their err
rors in life, The rat has moro than once
been charged with she execution of divine
sentences, and occupies in this point of
view al important place in the records Of
humanity.
1t is he Tgyplisn "a. that destroyed the
ArL4y OF Sennsckerlb by devour;ug during
The nis lit all ,he bow strings, and all the
Gather straps OF tina Assyrian bucklers.-
! piinv has consscrated an entire chapter
! If his eighth cook to relate the cities dss-
troyei by the rayagss Of beasts. This RAJ.
/ has played. since Piinvs time, An immense
part in the history Of the ruins. Have we
hot a. heard OF the fate of the Archbishop
| Of Mar.nca, dragged from his tower by =
band Of rata aroused BY God, dragged into
the middle Of the Rhine and there drowned
hv the same rats, who did not return sat
ishet, .ays the Calvins, legend, until they
uAl caused to disappear, by dint Of gna~
| ing, She holy tapestries, the name, and the
pogSr,.it Of The imtions priest.
Til. natural vice which leads the rat 10
, turn its inciss 3rs against its own blood 10
the corrective of its extreme prolihcntion.
Were it not Tor ratography, the rat would
slr-sdy have devoured all the inhabitants
of the globe. And if the barbArians had
no, turned their arms against each other,
whcr. would civilization be nov? And II
Lord Aherdecn and M de Nesselroae---l
mean, If the Norman and Tartar rat, in
81 cad # 6eing jealous Of each other,
should unite tomorrow fer example to
share the East between them.
There are rats. such as the Campagnols
aud the Lemmings, which every year quit
their county to seek booty in those ad DIN
lug, and then return home, the expedition
accom- pii.hea.
Thus did tbs ancient Gauls--thus still
the pirates, the Cabyles aud oil the named
population. of Africa and of Asia operate.
These travelling rats are followed in
| their cmigra.ions by their habltual enc =
miss, both qusdrupsds and birds, a. the
/ shoals Of herring AMI of mackerel attract
+ in their suite the whale and the shark
! There are soma others, which. like the
! brown ra, and the large field rat. abandon
| THAR country without thought of return
and establish their dwelling on the soil Of
conquered countries, as the Norman in
the Great Britain, the Mongolias in China.
| The mouse of France is ingenious, 81
! last IT is found in the dwellings, of the
! Gsuls mp to our earliest records. The
| use Of til. cat, however, which replaces
th. ferret, began 10 be adopted in France
only toward the commencement OF the
/ eleventh CENTURY. The ferret dates from
! the Invasion of the rabbit aud the Arab.
Tho Russian rat devours the dog, the
eat, and attacks tho child asleep. The
corpse o man is dainty for il. 1t be.
IA
! venomons. tuow ten cases OF amPuta-
tion Of the lex nscessitated by the bite OF
the ra. of the sewers.
The number of them nourishsd 1T the
slaughter houses and sewers of Paris is
beyond conception. From twenty 10 thirty
| thousana have been killed day after day =.
Mouttaucon without apparently lsssening
their Numbers. 1t is calculated that an
annual tribute of l2,776, 250 pounds of
meat is served to them annssliy-of horse
flesh and Of other purified animal mat
! tiers.
The rat Of Montfsucon has lately caused
session, of the Municipal Council of tina.
suburb. On this terrible question it was
rats was TO kill them, which did not ad.
vance matters much, seeing that they failed
to devise the methods of operation. 1t is
a question. however, not to BE- longer post
poned. For the quarters Of the Fast Of
Paris il is, To be or not to be- Reflect
little on this curious coneidsncs the
two fiercest and bloodiest varieties OF the
rat, which hive levied the heaviest tribute
on the European world, have como to US
precisely from the places, and At the came
times. as the two nations which have long
est remained barharious, the Russian and