Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-11-19
THE ARMY OF RATS.
MYRIADS ENCAMPED BENEATH THE
CITIES OF THE SEABOARD.

Rats-Statistics Of seaboard Town-A
Merchant Besieged-The Aggressiveness
of the Norway Rat.
Norwich, one of the most ancient towns on
the seaboard, has been overrun with rats 200
years, and there is a perennial struggle be
tween the inhabitants above ground and the
asrszens of sewers and cellars. The city
swarms with rats, but not all the citizens are
more than vaguely conscious of their innu-
merable presence. Occasionally Norwich
dweller, when strolling about the under
ground recesses of his possessions, may |
chance upon a rat, the inquisitive animal |
cooked up in dusky corner of his attic or |
cellar, his long shining tail curled about him.
While the tableau lasts-and its duration is |
not more than ten seconds-rat watches man |
with alert attention, his wicked bead eyes |
CLEAN iuquringly and defiantly at the in |
truder, and at the first advance of man, rat |
turns easily on his launches and simply dis
appears. No one knows how ho does it, how
the world opens to let him in how he slips so
slipperily down the tube of invisibiIity; but
that is all there is of it, just presto wink,
twist, slip a glistening loop of tail in the
air for an instant, and when you look where
the rat wss there is no rat there. There is
only a section of quiet dusk in the corner,
hole, and an interesting interrogative silence
That is all that the average citizen knows
Of rats personally; but Of the ravages of rats
his information is varied and accurate
A NEST OF vERnN.
There are four kind of tenants in every
seaboard town-men, women and English
sparrows above ground, and rats under
ground. One lives in the up stairs and the
other in the down stairs of the world 1t is
the people who do business along the wharves
and IN the lower streets of Norwich who can
tell us all about rats They alone realize
what a squirming nest of vermin life there
| is directly under their feet, how vast an army
| of long tail-d creatures is waiting impa-
| tiently each day for them to lock their doors
at nighttal so that the field may be left free
for rats! Ask Commerce, or a Water
street, or a Franklin square merchant if he
knows anything about rats, and then listen
for what he will tell
A curious investigator, who has been COM
| piling rat facts and rat statistics, did ap-
| proach veteran merchant of down town
street day or two ago, and did ask him if
he knew anything about rats, The man
stared at him for moment, and then made
| this vague response In a curious tone:
Rats
But the investigator pursued the subject,
| and the result of his inquiries is scme inter
esting rat data The first important fact
brought 10 light is that the numerical esti-
mate Of the rat population of the city, &C
cording to three expert Norwich statisticians,
varies from 200O. 600 to 250. 600 600 One man
put the number as high as 400, ,000, 900 coo, but
he was laboring under mental excitement al
the time, because rats had just gnawed
through his pork barrel and let the brine out
he appeared to be prejudiced against rats
and his estimate, therefore, is not counted
Probably this is the only town in the country
in which rats are hunted with rifles.
There is one merchant doing business undel
the steep hill in Water street whose store ha.
been invested and besieged by rats for sew
eral years. The besiegers do not confine then
assaults to nocturnal hours, but all day il
waste places and in nusky hooks the gnaw
ing goes steadily on, now and then inter
rupted by a distant squeak or the hurriet
patter of light feet. If the merchant goes t,
the rear of his store or to his dark little bacl
room or into the adjoining tenement, which
he uses for q storeroom, bright eyes suddenl,
CLEAN at him through the obscurity hk
shifting stars, the whisk of many tails i
heard, and there is clstter OF boxes an,
rubbish as the animals scamper away.
This merchant evidently has done some
thing dreadful to the rat tribe which bear
an inherited grudge toward him; he is q
awfully beset as was Bishop Hatto in hi
Rhenish Mausethurm, for the rats are con
tinually after him.
THE AGGRESSIVE NORWAY RAT
Some dreadful stories are told of the raven
business and the bold aggressiveness of tn
| Norway rat by men who work at night i
ramshackle old buildings in the lower streets
In one Water street shop a few years ago til
men had a job that kept them continually a
the bench all night for several days, and a
. lunch time their meals sandwiches) wer
fetched to them. Tempted by the smell c
food at the late hours of the night, and mad
audacious by the protecting gloom of th
cavernous old shop, which afforded mutt
tudinous lurking places, the rats trooped ou
in such numbers on the second night that th
mon had to throw biscuits to the advancin
army to keep it at bay.
In some Water street buildinrs the worl
men rarely so below stairs after nightfal
In one old shed on that street, the walls {
which are literally perforated with rat hole
let man sit alone and silent in one of il
compartments after dark, and he will 500
hear the gathering of an invisible host tt
walls fairly seem to be alive, the floor stil
with the soft patter Of a myriad Of football
and a creeping sensation goes over the lionel
visitor as he feels the almost inaudible al
vance of vermin life nearing him. A sudde
noisy movement is sufficient to send the no
hurrying back to its retreats, but the sens
ton is less easily removed.
The sewer Is the true home Of the wha,
rat, and it is his last fortress of safety whe
: he is pursued In the slime of the city sew,
he finds the offal and the garbage that
j Graves, and OF cast off human rags he bull,
his nest-hiS home Some of the sewers a
high enough for the street workmen to pa
through from the center Of the city to Il
mouth at the river shore They let down
y ladder at the manhole when repairs are to
made, descend into the black tunnel an
with their duly cleaning lanterns befo
y sAilIt hAOLt, AliS ICtiu W
= to the place where the breach is to be mende
NJ, As they pass on the rats fall back, but t
men hear the scurrying of the innumerat
sewer tenants continually retreating, al
sounding in the dismal and echoing void Ii
an elusive ghostly whisper Once, while t
men were at work in the Franklyn sire
- branch sewer, under Bath street, big arm
-, of rats, led by curiosity and tempted by t
10 muteness of the motionless workers, q
preached to within few feet, so that t
, background of gloom was starred with
Thousand glittering and shifting eyebal
u The men needed no other stimulus than t
Tt presence Of these uncanny sewer watchers
o. speed their operations.
rec In all the seacoast cities Of New Englal
'eo the gray Norway rat is numerous, bold a
ar intrusive. He came to this country amo
NJ the first assisted emigrants in ships frc
Britain, and he quickly drove the big, han
ns- some and harmless native black rat aw
md from the coast. The black American felix
~ is rarely met with now, except in towns
mote from the sea. He is not robust or vor
/. cious enough to stand his ground against t
belligerent foreigner. Comm G.
gc New York Sun.