The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-08-12

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of the dav occurred last week in the long
disused cellar ola New York brewery. The
cellar had been dug for long distance IN
to the side Of hill, and was left half full
of rubbish and offal. Two boys went In and
soon had to fight for their lives TO keep OH
the enormous rats which swarmed IN the
place. Here is the rest of the tale:-
"When the younger child carried the
news to his father that Philly was IN the
vault surrounded by the rats, ,Grossman and
two neighbors armed themselves with CLUBS
and hurried to the rescue of the boy. lhe
army of rats seemed to number thousands
when they reached the scene. The men
joined in the contest, but SO numerous and
persistent were the rats that they were more
than an hour in conquering them Dead
rats We're piled on every side and their mum
bers was SO greatly 9Teduced that the sur
vivors were finally driven to their holes.
Eight hundred and nineteen dead rats were
carried from the vault One OF them
weighed over eight pounds The carcasses
filed two horse box wagon, and were
geod load fer a team to draw away. The
combined weight of the rats were over
tOn.'
And now, while we are about 1t, let Us
give a snake tale, or two. The Altona,
Pennsylvania Tribune says:
''Pennell Sharp, farmers boy. went
swimming in a small stream, branch OF
the Conemaugh, along the line OF the ZEN
sylvania Railroad, near CressOn, recently.
He was watched by companions on the bank
They suddenly heard him give an nagenizing
scream end then disappear in the water.
They eaw that he had been caught by some
black animal which had one Of his legs IN
it's mouth The animal carried the young
man under the water, but reappeared IN wo
or three minutes with Sharp IN his Jaws.
He cried to his companions to shoot, but
before a gun could be discharged he was
he was pulled under the water again.
About two minutes after he rose with the
and struck out for the opposite shore.
Again he called upon his companions to
shoot. .but being afraid Of hitting Sharp no
one discharged his gun. At last he reach
ed the bank and began climbing up its slip
perry slde when the ANIMAL guided by q
sudden inn pulse, gave a jerk which tore
great piece from the calf of Sharp's leg,
and slid with it's mouthtul Of human flesh
into the deep water, to reappear no more
1t was thought for ?. time that the limb
could be saved. but modification set IN,
and it was found necessary to amputate 1t
lust below the knee The young man is
now getting along very WELL and will prob
ably recover. 1t is thought the strange an
imal is an alligator, and his presence in the
stream is thus explained: 10 May, as a
train Of freight cars was coming East, lin k
broke and slight collision occurred throw
ing car into the stream at this point. The
car contained general freight and among
other things live alligator, about six feet
long which was on its way to the Philadel-
phia Geological Garden. Nothing was after
wards seen Of the animal, and it was sup
posed it was killed by the fall. But it must
have escaped, and this was probably the
animal which attacked young Sharp
And here is another
Zone hundred and thirty seven snakes
were killed in one day last week on the farm
Of Arthur Champman, near Doylestown.
On the morning of this day farm band
killed snake in potato patch, and few
moments after young snakes began to issue
from the sack or pouch, extending
Young snakes are nursed after being hatched
from the eggsuntl able to crawl on their
own hook, and upon examination it was
found to contain fifty-seyen little snakes,
from three to four inches long. They were
all killed Later in the day another EN-
ploye killed still larger snake. It also
proved to be female and her sack was
filled with young ones from the head to the
TAIL Upon counting them it was found to
contain just eighty, three to six inches long
They were quickly dispatched. and with
the two old ones made 1877 snakes slaugh-
tered all told