Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1880-08-08
a TON OF RATS;
Or, What is Home Without its Eight.
pound Rodents?
New York Sun

FRANKLIN, PA, July 31.-Twenty
years or so ago Herman Minnich owned a
brewery along French Greek, in this place
"A storage vault or tunnel belonging to the
brewery was eXcavated in the side of the
hill nearly 200 feet in length. There was
a great flood in the creek in 1865, and the
water threatened to fill the vault. A large
quantity of beer was stored there at the
time IN attempting to save the beer
from being carried away Brewer Minnich
was drowned Phillip Groosman now
keeps saloon near the vault, which he
uses to store cheese, bologna and beer in
The vault for some time has been overrun
with rats of an enormous size They fres
uuent the tunnel in such numbers and are
SO bod and aggressive that Grossman has
long found it necessary to take some one
with him to fight the rats away while he
takes out cheese or beer. The cheese is
kept covered with tin cases, through
which the rats cannot gnaw.
Among Grossman's children are two
boys, Philly, Is, and Eddie, s years old
They are both extremely fond of Swiss
cheese A few days ago they determined
to make raid on the stores Of their ia
vorite cheese in the old brewery vault
They knew it would be necessary to fight
an army of rats in order to secure the
prize they covertcd, but that did not deter
them. Philly armed himself with heavy
piece of hoop iron. and the two boys en-
tered the vault, the youngest one carrying
lantern. They had gone few feet only
when the rats began to dispute their pas
sage. Rats scampered about them On
every side, and it was with difficulty that
Philly kept them off of himself and broth
er by active welding of his piece of iron.
Some of the rats were of enormous size,
and the army kept the boys entirely sur
rounded, moving along toward the further
end Of the tunnel with them, and keeping
up loud and fierce outcry as they
marched. Several times one of the rats,
1more bold than his companions, would
jump savagely at one or the other of the
boys; but these invariably met death or
were disabled by blows from PHILIPS iron.
The younger boy wanted to 60 back after
a rat had leaped up and caught him by
| the sleeve with its teeth; but his BROTHER
quoted his fears and told him that the
rats were only playing.
By the time the boys reached the end oil
the tunnel, where the cheese was kept, the
rats had gathered by hundreds around the
children, covering the cheese boxes and
running over the boys in spite of the
efforts of the elder to keep them off
! Philly took off his coat and wrapped it
around his little brother to protect him
from the rats, and then proceeded to I'm
cover cheese The rats piled upon him
and all about him, as though frantic with
the prospect of getting possession of the
cheese themselves Philly beat about him
right and left, but finding it impossible to
drive the rats away, so that he could get a
box raised, he told his little brother to &c
back and tell his father to come into the
vault as soon as possible The little fel
low fastened out, leaving Philly alone ir
the dark, battling with the rats, which
were gradually getting the better of him
He placed his back against one side of the
tunnel, and welded his club continually
killing or disabling a rat at almost every
blow.
When the younger child carried the
news to his father that Philly was in the
| vault surrounded by the rats Grossmar
and two neighbors armed themselves with
| clubs and hurried to the rescue of the boy
The army OF rats seemed to number thou
sands when they reached the scene. The
men Joined In the contest, but SO numer-
Gus and persistent were the rats that they
were more than an hour in conquerine
them. Dead rats lay piled on every side
and their number were so greatly reduced
that the survivors were finally driven tC
I their holes. Eight hundred and nineteer
dead rats were carried from the vault
One of them weighed over eight pounds
The eareasses filed a two-horse boz
wagon, and were good load for team
to draw away. The combined weight o
the rats was over ton.