Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1885-12-04
SHE CAUGHT THE RAT.
How Mrs. Billikins Succeeded In
Entrapping a Rodent
The Very Diseouraging Consequences fFe-
male trateyy-HOw ShrewL Woman
Punished Her Husband for Inter
fering with Her Traps.
IChicagO Ledger.l

lNhiCdcO LCuSNEsl
The other day. as Mrs. Billikins was
about to put down a paper into which she
had been wading for an hour. in breath
less anxiety to fad out whether the blue
eyed maiden who had been tos sed ashore
in a sugar hogshead when a babs, turned
out to lie the Countess de LonSear and
married the red nosel scalawag, or
whether she was RS ored 10 her friends,
and mated TO SIR Timothy Titebute, of
Litu. .brane Hall, as she ardently hoped,
her eye happened to fall on a paragraph
that gave hsr Ihi liking machinery turn
In another direction. 1t was to the effect
that a good way to catcl a rat was TO
turn a boot d VA on the floor, close to the
wal, and as tue rat went around the Groom
ii would run into it, aud when he got
there set up the boo' and there he was.
"lhat sounds liks good Sc se," she
mused, sand l wonder / never thought of
it my sell"
The Mais)n d. Billikins is strongly in
fest 81 with rats. and the good woman did
have loHg to wait for an opportunity
TO try the experiment There was one old
veteran who had become SO bold that he
would d rt on, into the sitting-room near
ly every hour N the day.
'I'iI TX h m; see IL DON'T" said Mrs.
B.. as she went 10 another room and came
back wi IA pair of toots. which she
placed ne1r the wall on opposite siles of
the room a I'd then bid ID her time.
In few miuu es out came the rat, and
MrA b. at onco CT of s retreat by
throw ug a shawl over the lie from
wnich he ha e.nergsL The experiment
WIS a success, and tho rat was caught
according to pr Jgramme IsJ then ca me
n ring at the door bell, and, hastily pick
ing up the boots AMI putting them in a
corner, she went to the door. Hsr Wis
itors roved TO be a couple of lady
friends, who had called to talk about
church matters an get her jud sment as
to whether blue ribbon or pink would be
the more suitable trimming for a certain
so-and so. They remained for some time,
and she became 50 absorbed in the themes
discussed that sle forgot all about the
rat in the boot, and went to the kitchea to
look after household m mattars.
II happened that B llikins received a
call unexpectedly that day to rua up to
Milwaukee on a busin IS mssio for his
employers, and went home to change his
boots, as those he had on were new and
hurt his feet. Not finding them in the
bed-ro nj where he had placed them, he
went into the si;til groom and noticed
them standing in tn, cJrner. Think n z
that he might nave left them there. he at
once set abJus putting them oI. The first
one went Oh h i ri 5h', ut when he under
10 K the secon1 thsro was wr. He d s.
Gov v,red with much su lden les tn ut some-
thing with ii Q anI t eth was en- the in
sid The rat sezed him by the big toe
and dshed him TO proceed. BillIkins
avcrs that at thar awful mo nent he dis
tine ly b ,arl his hair cracking in: its
efforts to st1nl on elj In spite of his
ti-ht-h ting piu; hat H went hopping
bout the roo OF o1s 70 It. yelling for
has wife. and b,asphemins with all the
energy in him.
Hpari " the racke., and not ex1ectin Q
him h me at that tim, of day, his wife's
wits welt visit NJ. AMI she got so badly
fr. ;htened her back har dropped of, as
8 e rIshe out of the sile entrance and
in:o the sire t. whers brass band was
Just going down the dewalk on the way
10 ill al en:agsment somewhere in the
neirhb riood. Ia a voice Ike a gallop
she til them a lot of thieves had broken
into her house, aud were fighting over the
m re than dreadful Going hack with
this strong re- en- forcement she pointed
to the sitting room d Dor, and the melody
| puffsrs rush "a in The man with the big
horn laid dow1 his instrument and COL
! Jared liil.ikins with a remorssless grip
| that ma lie him black in the face before his
| wife could get into the room aud tell the
muscular musician that he was not a thief
/ Il. 4 n
honest man w tn a Jot full of misfortune,
who had cried nlo"d in a voice so laden
with woe that she did not recognize the
accents that hal won her heart in maid
enhood.
"But don't let the rat get away 20 she
exclaimed, as she slammed the door tc
an ran tO wad a corner of the sha wi into
the rat-hole so tightly that the oil fellow
couldn't escape by that route. "While
| we've got him we might as we'll take care
| of him."
Ana then she got up on the top Of the
cab net organ and told them all about
how she had trapped the rat, and what
Billikins had done with it At this the
band people laughed until the house
shook, and Bllikins shot out a new as
sortment OF mailed :ctions, in which fe.
male stupidity got the biggest In the
bunci.
"Dadsz n woman any way" said he
W b apparent warmth. That's the way
with every last gid-splintered one OF
them. They're always hatching up some
III n to play the very old knock -kneed
BE lzsbub with the men who drudge till
their shoulders droop for the sake oi
'e"."
But long before he had q ished this ex.
ordium he had got the boot of and wa.
sitting on the fl Dor nursing his bleeding
toes and anathcmatizing that rat in al
ton -ues known and unknown, while the
rat itself was skipping about the room
eluding the band boys Ike luck lodging g
door man, and the woman on top of th.
organ was throwing up her hands and
screaming like an opera singer spra nins
ner lungs in guest OF high notes.
The rat lna ly lodged into the bass horr
and lost himself. and found an asylum il
the labyrinth of its windingI The big
red faced man who makes a living BY
forcing air through the instrument loa leo
up lungs and Llew until he turned
" hite and looseled his scalp; but the ra
held the fort. and holds it yet, for all W,
have been able 10 learn to thu contrary
Uulass a ferret can be found small enough
to go throus sh by the same route the musi
pursues and chase the rodent the othe
way, it looks as thou "a the tone of the in
strunent was permanently inju: ed.
He is a miss guided youth vino doe
| ararxythiuc his oafh has arf al 10 :