Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-10-05
REMOVING RODENTS.
.R.t-Catcher Reveals some OF tue
secrets of II is Trade.


s,,o,, the Brooklyn Eagle.
1,bomss Cooper of Ninth street Is the
.st eminent ratcatcher in Brooklyn
~ artist in his peculiar line OF WORK.
p,gIe reporter found bin, not many
49, ooo. in shed IN the back OF his resi-
oo with mis- shirt sleeves rolled up
nine in his mouth. He sat on to-
hnu nov fenderlv examining ferret the
!na coIor OF light ecru. Mr. cooper Is
Ine s,, wirv man, with iron-gray hair ana
th,n' terretv eyes. he speaks broad
t,n'ijsh though he has resided In brook-
Iyn twenty-siX years. .s oho,+
,.q,he stories in the newspapers ABOUT
at catcbing" said he, plugging his pipe
Ia,.L his finger. sis all bosh. There amt
W. If romance in the business. JUS
like other businesses-it pays
IA the work thoroughly an
" am that's about all.
TSars,s some money in it, because
there amt no opposition. Kst-catcnin
49, 49, Wicked up in a day. 1t taxes years
W. so, liant work for man to get his hand
~ -. A green rat-carcher'll go to WORK an.
~ ~: hit all to pieces on his first job, an
shen ~ be,Il throw up the thing in dis
"mgayen't YOU been bitten"
ror reply he exhibited a number OF
N scsrs all about his arms ana nahus.
@Some rats is worse than Others"
Puff and pause. "a hungry snip IaC
abont "a bad to tackle as anything L
Snow Of. and he'll always kill q land rat.
Stis regular thing for a swarm OF ship
rots tn climbu up the hawsers and riggln'
~, cot onto the docks. There they'll
Snrch themelves together, and by
soneakin' or some other means, draw out
ali the neighborin' land and DOCK rats
INTO the dock an' go for 'em. III DON'T
mat,er how many or how few there are,
Hon,Il always find the dead bodies OF the
land rats left on the field after the hight.
n A shIn rat wont live on land. When l
cot NV ferrets to WORK in ship, and any
IF the rats escape my traps or nets, they'll
cot ashore by the hawser and
make straight for another ship:
4 "A rat understands every part OF
ship as we'll as sailor.
4 You'll always hnd EN- aoout tne
d steward's galley. or wherever the grub 10,
and about the engine room, where It's
4 warm, and in the lower hold"
"What is the difference between ship
\ rats and land ratsW
Il 81 divides the rats into three KINDS.
H Yes. three sorts. The city rat, the coun-
try rat and the ship rat. Thecity rat is
larger than the others, light brown In
H color. with whtish belly. The rats that
INHERENT in color. The male is the color
\ ola Maltese cat, and the female is light
n brown and white. The ship rats got teeth
\ as yellow as saffron, and if they get under
your skin it ants good deal of Friar's
balsam before the place'n heal. The
country rat Is smaller than any OF the
81 Others"
chow much do you get for clearing a
shipP'
B '!Slxty dollars. It's pretty hard work,
s. too sometimes, can tell you. to get them
Il out OF a ship. For keepin' hotel clear
\ all get maybe $500 year, and we get
about the same for private house as
8 ship"
What is the method of catching the
rats you mostly use"'
81 well, work alone. I've got dozen
4 English ferrets, which cost as high as $40
apiece. Ferrets kill rats two ways.
Y Dne'll bite the neck and draw out all the
q blood. That's the best. But my best
ferret only bites and kills, and so the body
decays. He'll kill a dozen rats in ten
minutes. When goes to place finds
q out the room with the most rat-holes in
4 1t. Then plugs zen all up but one. The
n ferrets go down, and then l fix a quarter
inch mesh net over the hole and sit and
4 watch. As fast as the rats run into the
Il net | grab 'em with tongs or my fingers
n and pop 'em into a bag. After two or
q three hours the ferrets will have killed or
sent up every rat IN the place. 1t they
don't come up then | whistle for 'em. If
all the rats are dead they'll come up at
once. but If there's one left it's pretty hard
TO get the ferrets up. NV best ferret's so
tame that he'll follow me about an crawl
all over me. He's as intelligent as a child,
a but he's gettin' too big for ms business an
can't work some raJ-hOles," and the rat
catcher heayed deep sigh. "All of EMIL
come up when they're called. | have to
q Keep 'em IN room by themselves, and 1t
has to be cleaned out every day and their
feet mas to be washed. They live on bread
hnc mix and fresh meat, but they don't
get any Tor tWenty-four hours when
they're wanted for business"
a could you free the city OF ratsp
wen, think if | had two men, and it
was worth my while, am | was allowed
10 20 ABOUT in my own way could pref
~ Wen 90 that. Only, you see, it'd take
Time, and the wOrk'd have to be kept up.
but the city won't pay to have its build
q ings cleaned out"
DO you ever catch miceY'
q seldom. You don't often find mice
~nere there's rats, for rats catch am Kill
n EN- quicker nor cat can, an they eat
,em, TOO. Once when ! was cIeanin' ont
Inc 81. Clair Hotel | Banged two white
mice aud i've white rats, and that's about
tne only strange thing l saw in twenty
II SIX years"
How long will q rat live ur,,ho,,t
fnodY' "0"'
About three days. But it wont live
Iwenty-iour hours without water A
sooo way 10 Kill rats on a small scale is
H 70 eaten one and keep him for three DAYS
Al d cage without food. But be must
nave water to drink. When he's well
starved let him loose and he'll kill every
aLne can lind. A hungry rat always
sllIs rat as amt hungry. But they
lever oite IN the dark. lll put any rat
n ~ my clothing an let him crawl all about
me, out when he comes out into the light
uon want to touch him with my fing-