The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-03-25
RATS IN THE SAWDUST.
One Hundred Brave Rodents Meet
Two Ferrets.
Ton Minutes in New York Rink Enjoyed
by All Except the Rats-How tho
Ferrets Got In Their Work.
What They Live On.
IN. Y. Morning Journal

Around sawdust covered pit in tum-
bledown house on the East Side sat last
night a half-hundred men, who gazed
through the smoke of cigars and ILL
trimmed lamps at two little animals that
the pit contained. Each one was about
foot in length. Tawny hair, spotted here
and there with white and black, covered
their little bodies. Now halting and
scenting the air with their pointed muz-
zles, and glanciny around out of their lit
tie red eyes, again running around, while
their tails, disproportionately large,
switched the air. The creatures seemed
as impatient as the men about them for
the seance to begin. They were ferrets,
natural exterminators Of rats, whose in
stincts had been sharpened bt constant
practice. Their owner had confidently
backed them to kill q hundred rats in ten
minutes.
An individual with broken nose, whose
one eye was as sharp as the ferrets', was
chosen time keeper. He seated himself by
the pits edge just as another man ad-
vanced toward him carrying big iron
cage by its handle. 1t was filled-packed
with rats Not everyday rats, but big
gray fellows brought up in granaries or
along the wharfs. They seemed to know
their danger; they struggled and fought
among themselves, trampling and biting
at each other as they sought from one side
Of the cage to the other for some door, to
escape.
The "sportsn around admired them, and
the betting that had boen all in favor of
the ferrets swung around to even on the
rats. Bets were made in an undertone; it
would not do to talk too loud; Mr.. Bergh's
agents or the police might overhear, and
then the fun would be lost.
The Cyclops with the watch called
"Time.n The man with the cage swung
one of It's sides on hinge and dumped a
struggling mass Of gray-black hair and
swapping jaws and long tails and black
feet into the pit. Like two fellow flashes
the ferrets were among them. "Crunch,
crunchn went their teeth. Two rats lay
dead. The rest scurried wildly around,
jumping over one another, dashing them
selves against the pits sides, leaping here
rets attended strictly to business.
Five minutes passed and seventy rats
had been killed, nearly all by exactly the
same wound-a bite through the spinal
cord Just behind the head. The tawny
hair Of the ferrets was dyed red with
their own blood and their victims. Some
of the rats fought viciously and bit deep
ly. Soon only ten rats were left, and but
eight minutes had gone.
'I'll bet hun. to fifty" said one of the
delighted spectators waving a bunch of
greenbacks, "that the ferrets do 'em in a
half miuute"
No one took the bet. II he had he
would have lost.
Eight minutes and twenty EIGHT sec
onds," declared Cyclops, as the last rat
fell.
While tho owner picked up his wounded
pets and tenderly washed their wounds in
tepid water, the other sports ranged them
selves along the nearest bar and spent
their winnings and forgot their losses in
East Side whisky.
"Talk about your Rough on Rats" ad-
miringly said tho owner 70 UOHrRdL re-
porter who remained to talkto him; "fer-
rets is the toughest things on rats knows
on. I've trained those two 'uns to fight,
but there's an old chap named IsaGcsen
down on Fulton street who has his trained
TO clean rats out Of all sorts OF places.
You see there's nothing on earth n rat
fears so much US n ferret. AS soon as one
comes into house the rats leave quicker
than the Tammany fellers are leaving the
old wigwam. If they don't leave the fer-
rets can walk right into their nests and
wherever they breed. "A ferret can 20
wherever rat can"
"What do you feed them on?" asked the
reporter, innocently.
"Aint just told you? Feed 'em on rats.
When they've eaten the rats, give 'em raw
meat, bread and milk, anything bat salt
beef.