St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-08-30
Sewer Rats at Bay.

big rass in my time, but the biggest
ones were captured along the wharves, )"
said old Jack Gregory, or "English
Jack, " as he is called by his acquaint-
ances. Gregory is o little old fellow,
not more than five feet in height, and
pressing close upon his sixtieth year.
He lives in Camden, on William street,
below Roydon. When he starts out on
his rat-catching expeditions he is al
ways accompanied by two little Scotch
terriers chained together With box
of ferrets thrown over his shoulder,
English Jack" presents an odd pict-
nre.
have followed rat-catching for a
wing for forty years., said Gregory,
but the most vicious chaps are gen
orally found along the wharves, near
where the sewers empty into the river.
They grow up in the sewers and event
ually find their way to the waters edge,
and there they settle permanently or
else take up quarters in the warehouses
near the docks. don't mind Job OF
clearing g stable of rats. That's fun
for. me. But when am called upon to
clean out warehouse / always know
that it means tough work, W tn proba-
bly, the loss of three ferrets. Nine
times out of ten a rat will run away
from ferret, and when they emerge
from their holes my dogs and just lay
for them and kill them as soon as they
show themselves. But have had many
a valuable ferret killed by wharf
rats. The rats being used to eating
garbage, greedily devour everything
they come across, and grow to be
tremendously large. | have seen lots
that were as big as cats, and fero-
cious fellows they were, too. | remem-
Der once of a pitched battle that took
place between three of my ferrets and
five rats down at the sugar boiling
house on Delaware avenue, below
South street. Each rat was from
fifteen to eighteen inches in length,
and must have weighed from four to
i've pounds apiece. They had it hot
and heavy for a quarter of an hour.
The terrets fairly chewed the rats to
pieces, and came out victorious,
though they got severely bitten them
selves. Subsequently,, one of the fer
rets died. That night | succeeded in
killing ninety rats. But / have seen
4dL SSL 4dtS GHdA LuOSS al 4LiJ OAlu6ss N
few years ago my dogs caught rat
down at the Washington avenue grain
elevator which was much bigger than
Il cat. 1t was two feet long, and
weighed twelve pounds. He must
have been quite old. and unusually fat.
/ guess he was the king rat about the
elevator. was very anxious to cap
ture him alive, and it was hard work to
drive the dogs of, SO eager were they
to put an end to him. He had fought
them hard, Notwithstanding his age,
and the dogs had their dander up. I
managed to drag them away, and then
threw a net around him and brought
him home to Camden. I doctored him
for three weeks and his wounds healed
pretty well. a saloon-keeper near the
old hayward made me an offer of
twenty dollars, and [ sold the rat to
him to place en- exhibition. He did not
make much by the venture, as the
saloon-keeper' s wife was afraid of the
big rat, and, being anxious to get rid
of the animal, poisoned it. While the
animal was on exhibition there was a
sign displayed on the iron cage in
which it was confined, saying: Don't
fool with the rat. This injunction was
rather unnecessary, for all the Gus
toners willingly refrained from poking
their fingers between the bars to stir
him up. His looks were enough to
brighten folks. y Philadelphia Record.
81 +.