Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1885-09-19

I that Of late years the scarecrow has
| become entirely useless There vas
time when one scareeroW with o St
Pafrick's bat and an Oshkosh frock
coat would protect 8 corn field from
crows OF average intelligence, but i
Is 90 longer eficacious The crows
have become familiar with the appear
aDce of the tramps who infest all paris
OF the country, and it is well under
stood in crow circles that the tramp
never carries a gun, and is therefore
harmless. The scarecrow so closely
resembles the tramp that crows fail 10
discriminate between them, and imag-
ming that the scarecrow is merely a
contemplate tramp they steal corn
under the very shadow of its bat.
1t was always mistake to suppose
that crows could be for any length Of
time frightened by scarecrows. The
scarecrOw was an imitation man, and
il ought to have been foFeseen that
the crows would some day End thats
scarecrow incapable of firing a gun
could do no harm. The farmers should
have appealed to that fear of the SUI
pernatural which is inherent In oil ami
mails Could they have employed a
ghost to protect their corn fields not
q single grain Of corn would have
been stolen. A Mr.. Woodruff, wLo
lives in q tenement house in New
York city, has solved the problem, aud
his successful efforts to rid bis house
Of rats by means of ghostIy cat Is
alone sufficient TO prove that If we
teaIIy want to frighten animals we
must appeal 10 their fear of the SUI
pernatural.
1t is well known that rats and mice
cannot be successfully resisted With
traps Young rats may occasionally
wander into trap, but every expe-
rieneed rat knows q trap when be sees
it and simply laughs at it. In every
house there are sure to be two or three
leading aud influential rats who are
perfectly familiar wit traps, and who
warn their younger associates TO be-
ware of them. The old fashioned
spring trap is decidedly popular among
rats, for the reason that they can
hardly spring it and afterward carry
off the cheese at their leisure As for
those ingenious traps designed to
catch mice alive, they are entirely
worthless. A rat who sees q small
box with q seductive piece Of cheese
displayed behind the iron bars of an
misunderstanding compartment knows
perfectly well that it is trap, and he
will refuse to enter the door of the
box even when it is decorated with
the legend 10 large plain letters RATS
will please enter aud turn to the left
The best of free cheese always on
hand
Mr.. Woodruff having spent much
money on traps, and having found
that poison was in vain and that
real cats were lazy, decided TO
try the experiment of frightening rats
by convincing them that the house
was haunted. He prepared large
stuffed cat with green glass eyes and
ferocious and sarcastic smile, and
placed in her interior an electric light
There was large closet in his bed
room which contained half a dozen
rat holes from which rats came forth
every night on foraging expeditions.
In the middle of this closet be placed
the cat and connected her internal
light with wires running to battery
near bis bedside. Having thus pre-
pared bis feline ghost Mr. Woodruff
went to bed and waited for the rats
As soon as the house was quiet the
rats came out, and when, judging
from the noise, there were at least
dozen in the room, he turned on his
electric light. Wild squeaks of hor-
ror greeted the awful appearance Of
the ghostly cat, with her glowing
eyes and shining teeth, and there was
the rush of many feet as the brighten
ed rats fed to their holes. Mr. Wood
ruff. chnckling over the success of his
experiment, arose and examined the
closet. Two rats, who bad tried to
enter the same hole at the same time
and bad become securely jammed,
were kicking iiercely, while three fe-
male rats lay on the floor in dead
swoon. These were soon seized and
committed to the Vastly bathtub, and
the gbostly cat was left to stand guard
over the rat holes till daylight.
What is still more remarkable, the
rats left the house without an hours
delay. There had previously been,
at a low estimate, fully, 1000 rats in
that house, not to speak Of swarms of
subsidiary mice From the hour
when the stuffed cats electric light
i began to glow not rat or q mouse
- hnars rnnn IN Mr. Wnn1lrnffss