Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-02-26


IHEARD the narrative first from the lips
of an old sea Captain--a man of unques-
tionable veracity / have not the
slightest doubt of its entire truthfulness,
although the reader is not obliged TO be-
lieve it. will give ii, as nearly as | can
remember, in the narrator's own words:
II sailed from New York for Liverpool,
with an assorted cargo" said the captain,
ain ship terribly infested with rats. |
tried every plan could think off 20 lessen
their number, but all without effect. The
more caught the more there seemed to
be, till became almost disheartened and
well-nIgh resolved TO let them alone alto
gether.
AT length one of the sailors suggested
new trap, which struck me as ingenious,
and which thought would be likely to
prove efficient. Acting under the advice
of the old seadog alluded to, ! took a
barrel, which / halffillcd with water
then / took the head belonging TO the bar
rel and trimmed it on the edges till il was
small enough To fit inside the barrel
across this head nailed a stick, the ends
of which projected about an inch on each
side, which ends | had whitfield round
then bored two holes, one on each side
side of the barrel, near the top, and in
serted the ends of the stick therein, so
that the head, while apparently covering
the barrel, swung free of it--now fasten-
ed piece of pork on the exact center of
the cover so that il would swing neither
one way or the other unless touched on
the edges, and my trap was complete.
The reader will readily understand that
when rat leaped on the edge of the COW
er, to get at the pork in the center, IL
would go down with his weight and drop
him into the water below, after which IL
would swing to its former position and be
ready for the next customer
1.-THE trap succeeded admirably. On
the morning after / first SGT ii / counted
thirty dead rats In the barrel--flne
fat fellows, who had been plundering the
ships stores till they had swelled TO al
dermanic proportions. On the second
night / caught twenty-on the third night
twelve---on the fourth night two--and on
the fifth night none at all-and yet
strange to say, the pork was gone. L
baited IL again and again, but each time
the pork was gone and no rats aoere caught.
| This puzzled me not little. How could
| the rodents secure the pork without get
ting free bath2 The subject worried
me. | called council of war consisting
Of the entire crew and officers Of the ship,
but nobody could suggest a solution of
the mystery, and in the meantime the rats
were thicker than ever. My curiosity
and my combativeness were both aroused.
resolved TO solve the mystery at any
cost determined to watch. ..
Accordingly at about seven O'Clock
one evening, while twas yet light, took
a pinnacle light and went down into the
4 - a ell II II had aUn
trap. hung the lamp on nail and en-.
sconcng myself behind cask of beef in
as easy a position as possible | set
tied myself to await patiently solution
of the problem which had so puzzled
| and vexed me.
"An hour passed by and yet no sound
save the plssh Of the waves as they parted
| from the ships bow, and the straining Of
the cordage fell upon my ears. My eyes
| had become accustomed to the darkness
| Of the hold, and the dim religious light
thrown by the pinnacle lamp made every
| thing around me distinctly visible.
"At length slight scratching noise, fol-
| lowed by squeak, startled me, and the
next moment two grave-looking and
| obese old rats ran TO the cleared space
| whereon the barrel stosd, and snuffling
the air as they looked around, began to
recGnoiter.
Seemingly satisfied after brief in.
vestigation that no enemy was at hand,
they scampered back, and in the course.
| of some five minutes returned with an
army numbering some thirty or forty Of
their companions at their back.
! 81 watched with breathless eagerness
| TO see what would follow next.
after apparently consulting together
awhile the rats divided themselves into
two squads, and one-half remained on
| one side of the barrel while the other half
went round on the other side. Then the
/ party on the side nearest me assembled
She side OF the barrel one after another,
each placing his forward feet on the edge
| OF the cover To hold IL down, and then the
| party on the opposite side assembled, sur
| rounded the pork, loosened ii from the
cover, dragged IL to the ground, and then
the whole party surrounded IL and began
greedily TO devour IT, The mystery was
| explained, and / concluded that from that
time forth it was useless TO attempt TO cir
cumvent the rodent thieves. Grasping an
old Delaying pin, which somehow had
found its way into the hold, let IL fy
full force at the crowd, and succeeded in
knocking over some three or four Of them,
bat I bothered myself no further about
them.
| sWhen but about two days from port
my ship began 10 leak badly, and al.
though we had no storm found 1t neces-
sary 10 keep the men at work at the
pumps constantly to keep her free. This
was great mystery To me. could not
understand ii, nor could any of my Off.
GERS or crew suggest possible cause
We reached port in safety, however, and
then had the vessel hauled up for re-
pairs. The caulkers could discover moth
Ing wrong at first Even the paint on
her bottom seemed to be intact, but on a
closer examination ii was found that in
many places the planking was mere
shelf. The rats had gnawed their way
downward in spots till they had reached
the water, and had left nothing but the
mere crest of paint between us and eter-
nifty. Had storm ovcrtaken rs before
reaching port, nothing on earth could
have kept Us from going TO the bottom,
for there were many places through
which strong man might easily have
! forced biz finger. You may well believe