The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-12-18
nlanitowof pilot.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER Is, 1884.
YARNS ABOUT WOOD RATS.
An Animal That Lies Low by Day and
Plays Practical Jokes by Night

An Animal That Lies Low by Day and
Plays Practical Jokes by Night
Il don't know whether people out in
Colorado are bothered yet with what
we used to call wood rats said a
former resident of that state to New
York Sun reporter, but few years
ago when / first went out there, they
kept Us in perpetual stew. The wood
rat is a natural-born, irreclaimable
thief. What he steals for no one had
ever found out while was there, for he
don't crib things to eat, and he dis
tributes his booty about the country
without any regard to his personal
benefit. When he steals something
from one spot he viii put in its place
some article he has filched from anoth-
er. | remember once | was building a
shanty out in Pueblo. and had key of
nails sent in from Denver Work had
been at a standstill for a day or so for
want of them. | knocked the head out,
and left them in the shanty over night.
Next morning there wasn't a nail in
the key, but in their place was a
miscellaneous collection of articles,
consisting of table knives, spoons. tin
saucer, several stones, a number of
chips, buckskin glove, and worst of
all, set of false teeth.
I'VE knew at once that the mis-
chieVous rats had been at work, and |
set out to see if | could gather up at
least a portion of my nails about the
neighborhood. found a man who had
lost g spoon and had found pile of
-, l. Al
buckskin glove had not been remuner-
ated for his loss with nails, but some
ones wooden sock lay in its place. BY
and bye the whole community was cut
looking up missing things and dumping
nails at my shanty. | got back about
half of them, and the articles that had
been left in their places We're all re-
stored to their owners except the false
teeth. No one in the whole neighbor-
hood had lost any teeth. The finding
of the teeth came to be the talk of the
country, and in a few weeks a Judge
over in a town twenty miles away sent
| a man over to look at them, as he
thought they might be a set of teeth of
his that had mysteriously disappeared,
stating that they had been taken from
| a tumbler of water, in which they had
been placed over night, and that dead
bird had been left in their stead The
teeth proved to be the Judges. Those
rats must have had high old time
with the Judges teeth before they
reached my place and dumped them in
the nail keg,
ut used to be afavorite pastime with
the wood rats to carry all sorts of re-
| fuse and garbage into houses and scat
ter ii about. l have walked up more
than once to find some moist and
understanding morsel from the swill
tub lying across my face, or number
| of them piled on the bed covers. This
popularity of the wood rat naturally
| led to constant annoyances and mis-
understandings, and newcomers into
| the region, unacquainted with the WAYS
| of the animal. were frequently mysti-
fed, and sometimes frightened by oc-
currences. An Irish family once came
to the neighborhood, where they had
purchased little property. They had
not been there a week before the wood
| rats paid them visit. Denny Ryan,
the head of the family, placed his pipe
on the table as usual on going to bed
one night When he arose in the
| morning his pipe was gone, and lying
where he had left it was a tallow
candle in his house, and no one in the
house had touched the pipe. This
aroused his superstitious nature. He
related the circumstances with much
awe to some acquaintance, who. see
ing some probable fun in store for
them. did not inform him as to the
cause of the mystery. One morning, a
few days later, Denny found his lost
pipe in his boot, and the sock he had
LETT there when he went to bed was
gone. Denny declared that there were
ghosts in his house. He was thor
oughly frightened, and wanted to sell
his property.
"A number of eastern men had got
possession of some land next to
Denny and his holding, they believed,
would in time be highly valuable to
them. Unknown TO any of Denny's
acquaintance, they made him an offer
for his property. 1t was less than he
had paid, and in spite of his supersti-
tious fear about his house, he declined
to take. it. A day or two after that
Denny found his stove full of potatoes,
| not one of which had been in his house
before, and the kindling wood he had
placed in the stove the night before was
piled on a table in the sitting-room.
Without waiting to entirely dress him
| self, he hurried to the parties who
wanted to buy his property, and closed
and clinched the transaction at once.
When his friends, who had been keep
ing Denny III ignorance of the ways of
the wood rat for the joke of the thing,
heard of what he had been induced 10
do by the sharpers. they attempted to
force them to cancel the sale; but as
everything they had done was regular,
they refused to do it. Denny friends,
however, Clipped In and made up quite
Il sum of money for him. If the wood
rats hadn't bothered Denny he would
have been rich man in d year or so,
for his property became worth thou
sands of dollars.
The wood rat is about the size of
our common house rat, with a tail nine
inches long. 1t is gray on the back
and white on the belly. There's dew
iltry enough in 'em to fill Il wood
chuck. You seldom see one of them,
plenty as they aye. for they lay low in
the daytime, ana won't come fooling
around at night if there is any one
stirring about the house.
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