Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-05-31
AS TO RATS
low They Climb Ships and Attack Private
Houses.

low They Climb Ships and Attack Private
Houses.
''Pve got as high as 800 for taking
two rats from ship" said the rat
catcher. Dock rats live at the piers
in colonies of from 500 to 1900. Like
bad tenants, they leave their old habi-
tations for new about once month. On
the 1st of May they will move by thous-
ands. Constantly uneasy, they go around
from dock to dock seeking where the
lowest tide is. They have a navy. 1t
is made up of floating pieces of wood
and floating chips. They are all pirates
or wreckers. When scraps or slops are
thrown overheard from a ships deck
they put out their craft and seize it.
Tourists going to Europe board a
ship in two ways. The passengers go
up the gang-plank. The rats climb up
the anehor-chain and enter the ship by
the anchor port-hole. Dan Stingsby,
the great rat-catcher. says he has seen
an old rat, carpet-bag in hand, bid his.
family good-by and then walk up one of
the ships cables. Dock rats go to Eu-
rope whenever they feel like it, and
usually make four or five trips a year.
They are the third-class passengers
The frst-class go in the cabin, the sec
ond in the steerage, and the rats in the
hold. Going over they live on exported
American fannels and resin. Coming
back their food is imported fruits and
delicacies. They do not get off the
vessel when it touches Liverpool for
fear of being left behind. They are
able to climb the rigging like old sail
ors. In wooden ships they sometimes
eat through the planks and set the YES
sci leaking.
''There are English rats in America
and American rats in England. The
coclkney rat is coarser than the Ameri-
can, and is not generally able to stand
up four rounds against the American
rat. The bon ton of New York rats
initiate the customs of the British rats.
"Rats mate. In year, newly
welded pair of rats will raise an inter
esting family of 100 offspring, not count
ing descendants of the third and fourth
generation. This is why at the moment
a pair Of rats set up their household
gods on board ship, its owners viii
give rat-catcher 500 to serve writ
of ejectment on the prolific rodents.
Some vessels keep twenty cats to hunt
vermin
"The hotels in New York are greatly
annoyed with rats, and they infest pri-
vate houses. The Windsor pays $500 a
year; the st. Nicholas and a large mum, !,
ber of others 800 each to a professional
r +o1, Z.r1~~ -. 10
twice a week the year round. Some
private houses pay $40 month to be
protected from the vermin. Harry
Jennings, the king of the New York
rat-catchers, is said to have an income
of $4,000 year. The captured rats are
sold at $15 hundred"
How do rats reach private houses 2"
"They go from the docks six or seven
miles through the sewers, stop opposite
some house and mine their way into it's
cellar. A banquet at a residence will
bring a whole colony of them. We can
always tell when there is a great supper
at the Union League Club by the move
ment of the rats toward the upper part
of the city.
"There are about dozen kinds of
rats. The common rat is a brindle
gray. There are white and black rats,
white and gray, and pure white ones
with pink eyes. Ihaye heard rat-catch-
ers tell Of pink ones with white eyes. I
never saw one. I once caught rat
with but two feet. The other rats had
held him in a museum. An ordinary
rat weighs one pound. The largest one
I ever saw weighed two pounds and six
ounces, and was as big as half-grovn
cat"