Middletown transcript., 1882-03-10
A CAT IN A STRANGE GARRET.
MR.. FARQUAHARsoN's AMUSEMENT
ON HIS UPPER FLOOR.

ON HIS UPPER FLOORs
A gentleman named Farquaharson
residing in the First ward, has beer
busy all the week getting cat out Of
his garret. On his return from bust
ness, last Saturday evening, his wife
informed him that a strange cat had
in some manner, got into the garret
and could not get out Farquaharson
said he would attend to the matter.
After supper he procured ladder, and
putting it up to the scuttle hole,
mounted, and was soon picking his way
cautiously, from stringer to stringer,
with stick of kindling wood in his
hand. He had no well defined idea
what he was going to do with the stick
of wood, but thought it would be a
good thing to have in case the cat
should attack him. Balancing himself
carefully on couple of stringers There
was no floor to the garrett he called,
Come kitty, come kitty, poor kitty, "
and soon a pair of blazing green eyes
looked up at him from the space be-
tween the clapboards and the lath and
plaster, and howl of deep melancholy
split the darkness and the silence. The
suddenness of the apparition, and the
unearthly yell of the desperate cat, so
unnerved Mr.. Farquaharson that he
threw the stick of kindling wood with
all his might, missing the cat by some
three feet and loosening a rafter. The
cat uttered an appalling yell, spit, and
darted out, its eyes flaming like the
front windows of drug store Mr..
Farquaharson turned, made mis-step,
and fell, crashing down through the
lath and plaster, alighting on bed in
a bedroom below, and forcing the Stats
from their place, the whole thing going
through to the floor with clatter and
bang. Explanations followed, of course,
between Farquaharson and his wife,
and together they re-arranged the bed.
The cat, however, was laid upon the
table temporarily, as there was no
hurry-she could be got out any time.
When Farquaharson came down town
Monday morning he hunted up plas-
terer, sent him to repair the bad break,
and in the evening returned with fish
hook and line. The cat was down be-
tween the clapboards and the plaster,
nearly starved to death, and bowling as
though her heart would break. The
hook was baited with a piece of fresh
meat and cautiously dropped down be-
tween the walls where the cat was sup
posed to be. But she didn't bite, and
after fishing for an hour or two, Mr..
set the hook, descended,
and went to bed. Tuesday morning
the line was lifted, but no cat. Then
Farquaharson began to take soundings. |
He fired bits of plaster down several of |
5he apertures between the joists, and |
soon discovered where his mistake had |
been. He had been fishing in a wrong
lole. He was about to set the line at
5he hole where the cat was, when his
wife, who had assembled to the top of
he ladder and stood looking at him,
begged him not to do so, as the cat
night get caught while he was down
own, and its yells would drive her
'rantic. Tuesday evening Mr.. Farqua-
larson was too busy to fish for cats,
md the matter went over under the
.ules until Wednesday. Wednesday
morning he arose early, assembled to the
yarret, located the cat and dropped her
he hook. She bit like an alligator,
md Farquaharson pulled up. For a
moment there was scratching, grating |
sound from the depths below, then a
yowl like the wall of a lost soul. and
he line broke Instinctively the lone
fisherman stepped back. Soon after
ward the cat flew out, the fish line
from her mouth and her tail |
swelled up to the size of rolling-pin.
Three times she made the circuit of the
garret, splitting at the fsh-hook, and |
letting out language unfit for publica-
ton; then she made dive for the |
garret window, smashing the large 81 |
pane and plunging out into ETHEREAL
space. The line, however, caught, and
the cat was held suspended some fifteen
feet from the ground. Farquaharson
then descended and went to the front |
Of the house to view the landscape o'er.
People who were passing had their at
tention attracted by the strange sight,
as the cat was bowling, clawing and
shifting, and when Mr.. Farquaharson
appeared at the front door in his shirt |
sleeves. the crowd naturally wanted to
know the particulars. Farquaharson
said the cat was mad, that that II Il hhftdd hhftdd by
and he had hung her out
there to see if the cool atmosphere
would not have soothing effect on her
nerves. eff any of you gentleman
have a revolver 1 would be much
obliged if you would shoot her, said
ne. Almost every boy in the crowd
stepped forward with two dollar cast
ron pistol, and begun whaling away.
The noise soon attracted a neighbor,
who came over with a shot gun and
yiIled the cat, and she was cut down.
IN getting strange cat out of a garret
here is nothing like perseverance and
fish hook and line.-PecE'S San.
"WHY do they call the man who