Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-08-05
t. NJ. HIggInsOn's Chat about Rats.

II you have rats in your house or barn,
how many different ways of catching
them will be recommended TO you First,
you will be advised to try traps, and per-
hsps you will catch one rat put no more
will ever get into the trap, and it will
seem as If great many new rats had
come from other houses, to nibble at the
bait or to attend the funeral. Then you
will try poison, and some rat viii run
away ana die in the wall, and you will
wish you had let it live. Then somebody
advises you to fill pail with water, and
cover the suface with meal, so that the
rat shall take the water for dry land, and
be drowned. Then somebody else will
tell you to take away the meal, and to put
piece of cheese on the end of shingle,
and TO balance the shingle like zee saw
on the side of pail, and to rest the outer
end ON a shelf or something, so that the
rat shall walk quietly along till he gets
inside the edge of the pail, when he will
go plump into the water. OF course his
weight will bring down the balanced
shingle before he reaches the bait, but the
question is whether a tolerably shrewd
rat will ever venture on the shingle at all.
| have known people to try this, and they
said, "Wait, and you will see" But they
have now been waiting good many years
with never rat. And think they now
believe what great mathematician once
said, that it is easier to learn any problem
in Euclid's Geometry than to catch a rat
The most singular adventure l ever had
with rats was this: that after trying in
vain TO catch them in rat-traps, | got rid
of them at last by means Of mouse-trap.
This was the way it happened. On
moving into house that had been for
some months vacant, we used to hear the
rats at night in the cellar, making as
much noise as if carpenter were at
work there. So we tried in vain to catch
them; and rs there were also mice, we
set mouse trap. One morning the cook
found a mouse in the trap; but she was
afraid of the little creature, and set the
trap aside for me to take out the mouse.
In few hours went out to look for IL /;
but trap, mouse and all were gone, nor
have they since been seen. We had
neither cat nor dog nor had the doors
been left open. From that day the rats
disappeared, and we ceased to hear the
carpenters work in the cellar. l have
always believed that the rats dragged
away the trap into some hole, and de-
cided as they ave their poor little cousin,
that it should be be their last meal in so
inhospitable house.
One reason why rats are able TO live
and thrive in spite everything is that they
show such sagacity in obtaining food. A
lady OF my acquaintance found that the
eggs in her kitchen disappeared very fast,
and she and her husband, after patient
watching, saw the rats at work upon them.
She saw one rat lie upon its back, aud take
an egg or two between its paws, with the
help of others. Thus it became a sort of
live sled or wheelbarrow, without wheels,
and another rat taking in his mouth the
tail of the first one, dragged the load OF
eggs to their hole. Other observers have
seen parties of rats pushing eggs up or
down stairs, two being busy with each
egg; sometimes they have been seen
formed in line, and passing along the
eggs from one to another, as firemen pass
buckets of water at a fire. This shows
the same intelligence as beavers show,
when they unite in their engineering
work.
The same lady told me she had dis.
covered how rats drink sweet oil. Her
husband was an apothecary, and had
number of bottles of sweet oil some of
which were found nearly empty. They
watched and saw two rats at work upon
the bottle. They pulled out the cork, or
nibbled through it, and then one of them
let his tail down into the bottle, and soon
drawing it out, let his comrade drink it,
Then the comrAde took his turn, and
dipped in his tail, and the first rat licked
that, and so they were as happy as you
may see poor little children on wharVes,
around cask of mOlasses. The same
thing has been described in the books,
but it seems very hard to believe.
Naturalists say that these stories slack
confrmation;" but they would hardly be
repeated so often if they were not true,
and believe my old friends account at
any rate.
There is a story of a good woman in
England who heard for two nights a ter.
rible hubbuD in her cellar, so that she col.
leoted her neighbors to defend her. On
the third night her maid found that a
barrel of sweet wine had been entirely
emptied by rats. They had first gnawed
through the bung to drink the wine, and
then, as it sunk lower and lower, they had
eaten away the whole side of the barrel
The servant girls declared that "the ghost
had taken the wines" but If so, the ghosts
teeth made marks exactly like rats teeth;
and Mr., Buckland still keeps the remains
of the cask to show what these little ami
mails can do.
Rats certainly use their tails great
deal, whether they dip them into bottles
or not. If you observe rat climbing or
springing, or rising ON his hind legs, you
will see that his tail helps him very much.
IL is thick and strong, and the naturalist
Cuvior says that il has as many muscles
as the human hand. 1t seems very sur
DrisinR that rats should he sO clean vvhan