Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-08-11
/. v. msslasea's chat absus Rass,

you VIII % advised to try traps, and per-
hsps you viii catch one rat but no more
will ever get into the trap, and it will
seem as If great many new rats had
come nom other houses, to nibble ct the
bait or to attend the funeral. Then you
viii try poison, and some rat win run
away and die in the WALL and you viii
wish you had let It live. Then somebody
advises you to an pail with water, and
cover the suface with meal, 90 that the
mt shall take the water for dry land, and
be drowned. Then somebody else will
tell you to take away the meal, and to put
q piece of cheese on the end Of shingle,
and to balance the single like see saw
on the side of pail, and to rest the outer
end on shelf or something, 30 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
single before he reaches the bait, but the
question Is whether tolerably shrewd
rat will ever venture on the single at ALL
l have known people to try this, and they
said, swat. and you win see." But they
have now been waiting good many years
with never rat. And think they now
believe what great mathematician once
In Euclid's Geometry than to catch rat +!
with rats was this: that after trying in
vain to catch them in rat-traps, I got rid
Of them at last by means of q mouse. trap.
This was the way 1t happened. On
| moving into house that had been for
rats at night In the cellar, making as
mr. ~ fop AZ
work there. So we tried in vain to catch
them; and as there were also mice, we
set q mouse-trap. One morning the cook
found 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 l went out TO look for II !;
have they since been seen. We had
been LEFT open. From that day the rats
disappeared, and we ceased to hear the
carpenters work in the cellar. I have
always believed that the rats dragged
away the trap into some hole, and de-
cided as they ate their poor little cousin,
that it should be be their last meal In SO
inhospitable house.
One reason why rats are able 10 live
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, and take
an egg or two between its paws, with the
help Of others. Thus 1t became 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 flremen pass
buckets of water at fire. This shows
the same intelligence as beavers show,
when they unite in their engineering
work.
The same lady told me che had dis.
covered how rats drink sweet oil. Her
husband was an apothecary, and had q
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 1t, and then one Of them
Aet his tail down into the bottle, and soon
drawing il out, let his comrade drink II.
Then the comrade took his turn, and
dipped in his tail, and the first rat licked
that, and 80 they were as happy as you
may see poor little children on wharves,
round cask of molssses. The same
thing has been described in the books,
but it seems very hard to believe.
Naturalists say that these stories ''lack
confirmation but the, would hardly be
repeated 80 often IL they wtre not true,
and believe my old friends account at
any rate.
There II story OF Q good woman in
England who heard for two nights ter.
rible hubbub in her cellar, 80 that she col.
lected her neighbors to defend her. On
| the third night her maid found that q
barrel of sweet wine had been entirely
emptied by rats. They had first gnawed
through the bung TO drink the wine, and
| then, a. It sunk lower and lower, they had
eaten away tho whole side of the barrel.
The servant girls declared that "the ghost
had taken the wine;" but II 30, the ghosts
teeth made marks exactly like rats teeth;
and Mr.. auckland still keeps the remains
of the cask to show what these little ami.
mails can do.
Rats certainly use their tails Q great
deal, whether they dip them into bottles
or not. II you observe rat climbing or
springing, or rising on his hind legs, you
will see that his tail helps him very much.
1t IL thick and strong, and the naturalist
Culver says that 1t has as many muscles
a. the human hand. 1t seems very sur
prising that rats should be 20 clean, when
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 a. rats live; but rats clean
themselves after eating, % carefully a.
the most domestic cats and no IDEAS or
other insects are ever found upon them.
Rats are not easy TO tame, and yet they
have sometimes made excellent pets. The
driver of London omnibus once found
in his hsyloft q young rat OF . piebald
color, which he brought home for his
children to play with. The little thing
soon grew tame, and was great fayorite,
the children naming him Ikey" after
their eldest brother. He would lie before the
fire At full length, or run round and round
after his own tail like cat His master
often carried him In his pocket, or put
him in his dinner basket TO guard the
dinner. key was always honest except