San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-17
RATS FOR A NICKEL EACH.
A BUSINESS THAT MAY BE PROFIT
ABLE BUT NOT POPULAR.
Catching Rodents for the Market-People
Who Have Rat Dogs Buy Them-How
the Catchers Go About It-Taik with
One in the Business.

Rats seem to be very plentiful when your
house is infested with them, but when you
need them, and are willing to pay 8 cents
each for them, you find that they are scarce
enough" said dealer in ferrets and other
small animals capable of hunting or being
hunted, who lives with his uncompanionable
stock in a cellar in Harlem II have only
eleven rats on hand at present, and one of
them has a sore throat-a common disease
among the tribe-and how am to fill an
order for fifty, to be delivered in Jersey City
the day after tomorrow, is more than can
tell
What do want them for Why, to sell
them to the owners of rafting dogs of course
generally dispose of only half dozen or so
at a time, to some one who merely wants to
test his terriers powers, or to treat him to
little private exercise, but when a rafting
MATCH as the sport is called, is to come off,
often receive an order for a couple of hun
dred or more. Each owner provides the rats
for an opponents dog, and they all want the
healthiest, strongest and most vicious ami
mails they can get. 1t is not easy to supply
them, and like to get notice about fort
night in advance, SO that | can secure the
services of half dozen rat catchers.
LAS the sport of rafting grows more popu-
lar in and around New York, the trade of
rat catching is increasing. At present there
are about a score of professional catchers in
the city. They never do any other business,
and they are not very industrious at the queer
one they have chosen. You see, it is not an
occupation calculated to draw out the high
est attributes and strongest forces of mans
nature, and those engaged in it soon fall into
rat like habits of their own. ] don't know
whether it is mere imagination on my part
or not, but it certainly seems to me that their
faces gradually assume the contour of the
rats countenance. When they are not at
work they are drunk; sometimes, too, they are
drunk when they are working, and they often
ire horribly bitten. Rats fangs are said to
be poisonous, but never knew of any harm
beyond the pain, and, perhaps a little in
flammation, to follow a bite Perhaps the
alcohol in the system Of the catchers acts as
an antidote as it does in the case of a wound
inflicted by a snake.
THE trade might be made fairly remuner-
alive if it was pursued with more steadiness.
There are two distinct profits in it. The
catcher, if he should be a sober, respectable
looking man, whom persons would not fear
to leave alone at night in their houses or
good fee from those who desired TO free their
premises of rats, and you can readily mag
inc how large that class is in New York
Then there is no trouble found in selling the
animals caught. The demand for them is in
variably greater than the supply, and good
prices are obtained for them.
Every few rat catchers have traps Some
use an instrument like a long, slender pair of
az Ill, o.11
entirely to their hands. Their mode of work
ing is the simplest thing in the world. They
sit down on the floor, which is strewn with
some food that rats like. They place near
them a saucer of water. Rats seem to be
tormented with a perpetual thirst, and every
one of them will take drink before he re-
turns to his hole While be is drinking is the
catchers opportunity. You may have no.
ticed, when you have been watching wild
rat, that so long as you do not stir the brute
will show no terror. Frequently he will ap-
proach close to your feet, for he cannot
recognize life in a motionless body; but the
instant you move, be it in ever so slight de-
gree, he vanishes like dream. The catcher
is as still as death until his victim is within
few INCHES of him. either with his head
turned away, or so occupied in drinkipl as
fssee nothing but IA water. y r
! Then'the tofgs, oryhe glovedhand, siMntly
tdnd stealthilE desceid, anti tip rat isSifted
the floor and Sfopped into a bag be-
tween the catcher'S knees. If he squeals all
his fellows disappear as though the earth had
swallowed them, as indeed it has But, how
ever quickly the capture may be made, one
or other of the rats in the room is tolerably
sure to see it and to give the alarm Then
the catcher must begin a new vigil He never
has long to wait, however A rat must actu-
ally view or hear danger to detect it. He is
utterly unsuspicious, repeated warnings are
thrown away upon him, and nothing that
does not appeal directly to his senses can
affect him in the least. If no noise is made
he comes out of his hole in a few minutes to
tempt his fate again. A catcher could, and
sometimes does, get a hundred or hundred
and fifty rats and clear the premises of the
pests in a single night
SIN London, where rafting is much more
in vogue than it is here, some of the fancy
tried to breed rats. They succeeded to GER
tain extent, and produced great number
But they were no good. Being in fact do
nestle animals, they were not much afraid of
the terriers, and the dogs, as a consequence,
killed them in a tardy, half hearted way that
would have insured their defeat against time
or rivals in a pit. A big rat is not always
the best He is apt to be slow and to die
without struggle. The large fat sewer rat
is generally overfed and can neither run nor
fight A medium sized animal thin and
hungry, is probably the best. When he is
cornered he will often spring at the terrier,
grin him under the lnvrar TO- = 80 ---=l