The morning news., 1888-11-29
MIsCaIEvoUs WOOD RATS.
The Tricks They Play on Householders
in Colorado.
from the NeW Tork Times.


in Colorado.
From, the Ne0 York Times.
HARRISBURG. PA, Nov. 19.-"I don't
know whether people out in Colorado are
bothered yet with what we used to call
wood rats, said a former resident of that
state, now in business in this city, but a
few years ago, When l went there, these
misch .evous lite rolents kept us in per-
petual stew. The wood rat Is a natural
born, irreclaimable thief What he steals
for no one has ever found out, for he dos It
crib things to eat, and he distributes his
booty about the country without any
regard to his personal benefit. When
he steals something from one spot
he will put in its place some article
he has tilched from another place. re-
member once was building shanty in
Pueblo, and nad a keg of nails sent in from
Denver knocked the head out Of the
keg, and left it in the sbanty over night
The next morning there wasn't nail in the
keg, but in their place was a miscellaneous
collection Of articl 3, consisting of table
knives, spoons, tin saucer, several stones
number of chips, a buckskin glove, and
worst Of all, a set of false teeth. We knew
at once that the mischievous rats had been
at work, and / set out to see if | could
gather up at least a portion OF my nails
about the neighborhood. / found a man
who had lost spoon, and had found pile
of nails in his kit. The owner Of the buck
skin glove had not been remunerated
for its loss with nails, but some
By and by the whole commu
nifty was out looking up missing things and
dumping nails at my shanty. / got back
about half of them, and the articles hat
had been left in their place were ali Restored
to their owners except the false teeth. NJ
one in the whole neighborhood had lost any
teeth. The finding of the teeth came to be
the talk OF the country, and in few weaks
judge over in town twenty miles away
sent man over TO look at them, as he
thought they might be set of teeth of his
that had mysteriOusly disappeared, stati g
that they had been taken from a tumbler of
water in which they had been placed over
night. and that dead bird had bean left
IN their stead The teeth proved to be the
judges. The rats must have had a high old
time with the judges teeth before they
reached my shanty with them and dumped
them in the nail keg.
ut used to be a favorite pastime with the
wood rats to carry all sorts of refuse aud
garbage into houses and scatter it about. |
have walked up more than once to find
some moist and sweet-smelling tidbt from
the swill tub lying across my face, or
number of them piled on the bed cover.
This popularity of the wood rat naturally
led to constant annoyance and misundar-
standing, and newcomers into the region
unacquainted with the ways of the animal
were frequently mystifed and sometimes
frightened by occurrences. l remember
the case of an Irish family that had newly
arrived in the neighborhood, where they
had purchased little property. They had
not been there a week before the
wood rats began to make trouble
for them. Denny Ryan, the head Of
the family, placed his pipe on the table as
usual before going to bed one night. When
be arose in the morning the pipe was gone,
and where it had lain was a tallow candle.
Denny had no such thing as a tallow candle
in the house, and no one in the house hal
touched the pipe. This aroused his super
stitious feelings He related the circum-
stance to some acquaintances with muc,.
awe. They saw probable fun in store f,u
them, and did not inform Denny as to the
cause of the mystery. One morning,
few days later, Denny found his lost pipe
in his boot, and the sock he had left there
when he went to bed was gone. Denny de-
clared that there were leprechauns or some
thing in his house. He was
thoroughly frightened, and wanted
to sell his property. A number
of eastern men had got possession of
some land next to Denny's, and his holding,
they believed, would in time be highly val
liable. Unknown to any of Denny's ac-
quaintances, they made him an offer for
his property. 1t was less than he had paid
for it, and in spite of his superstitious fears
about his house he refused to take it. A day
or two after that Denny found his stove
half full of potatoes, not one of which had
been i'll the house before, and the kindling
wood he had placed in the stove the night
before was piled on a table in the sitting
room. Without waiting to entirely
dress himself he hurried to the mar
ties who wanted to buy his prop
erty and closed and clinched the transac-
tion at once. When his friends, who had been
keeping hlm in ignorance of the ways
of the wood rat for the joke of the thing,
heard of what he had been induced to do by
the land sharpers, they attempted to force
them to cancel the sale, but as everything
they had done was regular they stuck to
their bargain. Denny's friends, however,
Clipped in and made up quite a sum of
money for him. If the wood rats hadn't
bothered Denny he would have been rich
man in year or so, for his property became
worth many thousands of dollars.
"The wood rat is about the size of a COM
mon house rat, with a tail inches long
1t is gray on the back and white on the
belly. There's deviltry enough in one of
them to fill woodchuck. You seldom see
one of them, numerous as they are, for they
lay low in the daytime and never come fool
ing around a house at night if any one is
astir in it."