American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-02-06
know whether cruel sport can be called

know whether cruel sport can be called
a useful employment of rats; but an ac-
count is given of a strange proceeding
at Rome. A large number of rats were
dipped in turpentine, set on fire, and
| then made to rush down an open flight
of steps near the Vatican; they reached
the bottom as masses of charred flesh,
amid the shouts of the populace. Rats
are worth three shillings dozen to fur
nish II supply to those brutal exhibitions
in which rat-killing terriers show their
power Rats are also caught for the value
of the skin. There is firm at Paris
which buys the skin for this purpose.
The fur is dressed into a very good sub
stitute for beaver; while the pelt or
membrane is dressed into leather so fine,
elastic and close as to be used for the
thumbs of the best gloves. If anyone be-
lieves that rats are not used for human
food, he must change his opinion. In
Paris the chitloniers or bone grubbers
eat them. Gypsies eat such rats as are
caught in stacks and barns, and are less
strong in flavor and odor than those that
feed omnivorously. In China, split rats
are bought as dainty. An English sur
geon of some note had them cooked for
his own eating. In man-of-war, where
the rats made havoc with the biscuit, the
sailors had regular battue, and brought
down numbers of them; Jack made rat
pie, baked it, and liked it. At the siege
of Malta the French garrison, when fam
ished, offered as much as a dollar a head
for rats, or two dollars if barn-fed. Dur
ing the siege of Paris, in the late Franco
German war, many tasted rat who had
never tasted it before.
The fecundity of the brown rat is pro-
digious, and it has been calculated that
if Mr.. and Mrs. Rat live three years after
their first child is born, and if all the
children, children's children, children's
family at the end of the three years
would comprise 10000 mouths. AS
a rat is credited with eating One-tenth as
much as an average man, this interesting
family would consume as much as an
army of 60, 900 men.
Unquestionably whatever may be the
degree of fecunaity and voracity, rats
are generally a great nuisance, and re-
quire to be lessened in number, if not
extirpated. Let US notice some of the
varieties in which the nuisance presents
itself, and the mode of procedure conse-
quently adopted.
every part of the world. So industri-
ously do they make homes for themselves
in the numerous crannies and corners in
the hull of ship that it is almost i'm
possible to get rid of them. Ships take
out rats as well as passengers and cargo
every voyage; whether the former re-
main in the ship when in port is best
known to themselves. When the Eas,
India Company had ships of their own
they employed rat-catcher, who
somStj ines captured 500 rats in
one ship just returned from Cal
cutta. The ship-rat is often the black
species. Sometimes black and brown in
habit the same vessel; and unless they
carry on perpetual hostilities the one
party will keep to the head of the
vessel and the other to the stern. The
| ship-rat is very anxious that his supply
CT fresh water shall not fail; he viii
come on deck when it rains, and climb W
| the wet sails to SUCK them. Sometimes
| he mistakes a spirit cask for wate
| cask, and gets drunk. A Captain of al
American merchant ship is credited To-
| discredited) with an ingenious bit O
sharp practice as means of clearing hi
| ship from rats. Having discharged cargt
| at port in Holland, he found his shiI
in juxtaposition to another which hat
just taken in cargo of Dutch cheeses
He laid plank at night from the on
vessel to the other; the rats, tempted b.
the odor, trooped along the plank, AM
began their feast. He took care that tn
plank should not be there to serve then
as pathway back again; and SO tn
cheese-laden ship had a cruel addition t.
its outward cargo.-Prof. James Mdckin
| t0sI in BaLL0u's MOuthlu