St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-07-24
ELECTRICITY GOOD FOR CATS.
The Useful and Unpatented Inven
ton of a New Yorker.

The Useful and Unpatented Inven-
ton of New Yorker.
New York Telegram.
The season for cats has arrived. Those
persons who have made study of the
cat question find that the ordinary
Thomas is a regular barometer and af-
fected by the climate wherever he lives.
In warm weather he expands with heat.
When the mercury is 95 deg. in the.
shade Thomas is a third larger in cir
conference than he was last winter
when the mercury was 10 deg. below
zero in the blizzard.
This explains" said a cat trainer
last night, ''why every back yard is so
much like a menagerie at this season of
the year. There are various kinds of
cat teasers for keeping the beasts within
the bounds of civilization, but none of
them have been so effective, nor given
so much satisfaction, mingled with fun
to the experimenter, as the one that was
tried Monday evening at No. 81, West
Fiftieth street."
Mr.. Bradley, an expert telegraph
operator and electrician, rugged strong
copper wire along the back fence around
his yard, and attached to it powerful
battery which he had constructed in his
kitchen. Having been troubled with
cats for year or two he thought it
about time to get revenged.
He said he did not mind the cats, or
rather their conversation, so much as
he did the demonstrations of his neigh
b0rS. Every morning the servant had
up the old boots, hair brushes, broken
skates, plug hats, cast off clothing, fruit
cans and the like which had been hurled
at the cats during the night, saying
nothing of the barrel or two of Stops
which had been rained down at inter
walls during the moonlit hours.
Mr.. Bradley, having rugged his copper
wire along the parapetS of the back
fence and connected 1t with the mule
kicking battery in the kitchen,
picked up a volume of Boccacio's
with serene satisfaction for the moon to
rise. He was just in the middle of a
gorgeous family story when big Rider
Haggard moon came sailing up the sky
from the dark continent of Long Island.
ct should be stated right here that hav-
ing gotten the battery IN working order
he had broken the circuit while await
ing the cats arrivaD.
With the rising moon came the rising
cats. They smiled at each other, and it
was d hot. and then proceeded to
take du Inventory VI OIlG announcer
charms. The Thomases were III good
voice. and in less than five minutes,
when the moon looked like the moon of
the Lybian desert, there were about
thirty well-fed cats on the fence. AS
they roasted there. vowing eternal love
and fdelity-their hearts beating as one
they broke forth into sheet-iron con-
cert that fairly loosened the spikes in
the fence.
0Then Mr.. Bradley touched the key of
his battery and turned loose about 10000
volts of chain lightning. The effect
nearly called out the fire department.
Streams of fire as big as Jim Connelly's
legs plOwed around ON that fence among
the cats, mixing fur, kittens and vows
of love all up in awful confusion. Fid-
dlestrings, boarding house chops, cloths,
bits of fur and maniac screams made the
yard like steamboat explosion by
moonlight. All the windows within a
quarter of mile were raised simultan-
eously. Old boots, waShstands, piano
stools, nerve tonic and back hair came
flying into the yard as testimonial Of
appreciation to the noble inyen tor.
A reporter of the Telegram visited the
place yesterday and found about cart
load of debris in the various corners of
the yard, where the janitor had shoveled
it up for inSpection-nOt necessarily for
publication, but as guarantee of good
faith. In examining the fence with an
insulated stepladder the reporter found
the structure charred to solid charcoal