The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-08-19

|itont, let his comrade llok & -
tfecorafade t4ok his tnrn, arI2r1ff q
in his tail, and the first rat - 1t,
50 they were as happy as nay see
poor little children on whaElcH arpund
. cask Of molasses. The 80 thing
has been described in the boqkD ~ &
seems very hard 10 believe N1o1rzl-
lists say that these stories lnok .ooo11r-
nation; ~ but they would hardly be re-.
peated 50 often if they were not true,
and believe my old friends account,
at any rate. sEaEs zn.a
There is a story Of good woman ID
England who heard for two nights .
terrible hubbub in her cellar, 50 tina
she collected her neighbors to defend
her. n On the third night, beg maid
found that barrel of sweet wine had
been entirely emptied by ratss They
had first gnawed through the bung, to
drink the wine, and then, rs Il sunk
lower and lower, they had eaten away
the whole side of the barrel. The SER
vant-girl declared that the ghost had
taken the wine :" but If so the ghosts
teeth made marks exactly like rats
teeth; and Mr.. Buckland still keeps
"
these little animals can do IA.
Rats certainly use their tails n great
deal, whether they dip them into bot
ties or not. Hyou observe q rat climb
ing or springing or rising on, his hind
legs, you will see that his tail helps
him very much. 1t Is thicka and strong,
and the naturalist Cuvier says that It
has as many muscles as the human
hand. 1t seems very surprising that
rats should be so clean, whey they live
on such dirty food and in such dirty
places. Cats seem to lose some Of their
instinct of cleanliness when they have
to live as rats live; but rats clean them
selves after eating as carefully as the
most domestic cats; and no fleas OF
other insects are ever found upon them.
Our rats are commonly Of the gray
species (Mifs decuB,oy,usl, which has
gradually driven out the black mt His
1uftus). But sometimes white rats are
kept as pets, and sometimes variety
Of colors may be seen among wild rats
A lady of my Acquaintance. ,cnce lived
in house in Boston, with stable be-
hind it, from which great many large
rats used to come into the kitchen and
the cook once declared that she heard a
knock at the kitchen door, and ON OPEN
ing it saw large rat standing on his
hind legs and looking at her, so iri-
pudent," as she said. Be that as it
may, this lady was once looking out.
into the yard and saw several rats
by the pump. In their midst
was lying Gas she thought) beautiful
piece of reddish fur: As she wondered
how it came there, it suddenly took to
its heels and ran away into the stable
with the other rats, and she never saw
It again. 'i ~7 rl.4iqf
Rats are not easy to tame, and vet
they have sometimes made excellent
pets. The driver of London ,omui-
bus once found in his hayloft young
rat of pipbald color, which he brought
home for his children to play with.
The little thing soon grew fame, and
was great fayorite, the children NAM
ng him I" Ikeyn AFTER their eldest bro
her. He would lie before the fire at
full length, or run round and round af-
.er his own tail like cat His master
)ften carried him in his pocket, or nut
him in his dinner-basket 10 guard the
was always HOu(13I eX>
,ept when there was plum pudding In
he basket, and then ne had not moral
courage enough to resisthibbiinga at the
)lums. Buff others touched the has,
xet, Ikey flew at them and drove them
sway. In return, his master taught
him to sit on his hind legs and beg, to
ump through q hoop, to drag little
art, and to carry money in his, mouth,
/ once saw a series of sketches by a
1oung lady of Boston, representing a
,Ieigh-ride of cats drawn 'byrats. In
ne first sketch they were trotting of
very finely. In the second the cats
mad grown hungry and were dropping
whips and reins> to spring upon the
frightened rats. In the third posture
he cats were walking sorrowfully back
% the city, carrying their whips i'm
heir fore-paws and their "teamn i'm
heir stomachs, and leaving the sleigh
md the empty harness behind. III
we're rat i should not wish to be "bro-
Ken to harness" in that style.Hs TfLr
T. W. Uggiason.