Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-01-02
MISCHIEyOUs RATS.


AASy --E- VI VIC hsOicnI aflCsy-
II 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 Harrisburg, Pa, but
few years ago, when 1 went there,
these mischievous little rodents kept
US IN a perpetual stew. The wood rat
Is natural born, irreclaimable thief.
What he steals for no one has ever
found out, for. he doesn't 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 fllched from another place. 1 re-
member once | was building a shanty
in Pueblo. and had keg OF nails sent
in from Denver. / knocked the head
out of the keg and lett it in the shanty
the over night The next morning
there wasn't a nail in the keg, but in
their place was a miscellaneous collec-
tion of articles, consisting OF table
knives, spoons, tin saucer, several
stones, a number OF chips, buckskin
glove, and, worst OF all, a set of false
teeth. We knew at once that the
miSchievouS rats had been at Work,
and l set out TO see II 1 could gather
up at least portion OF my nails about
the neighborhood. found d man who
had lost u spoon and had found a pile
OF nails il his Kit. The owner of the
buckskin glove had not been remuner-
ated for It's loss with nails, but some
ones wooden sock lay in Its place, BY
and by the whole community was ont
looking up missing things and dump
ing nails at my shanty. / got back
half OF them, and the articles that
had been left in their place were all
restored to their owners, except the
false teeth. No one In the whole
neIghborhood had lost any teeth. The
finding of the teeth came to be the
talk of the country, and i'll few
weeks Judge in a town twenty miles
away sent man over TO look at them,
as lie thought they might be 4 set OF
teeth of his that had mysteriously dis
appeared. stating that they had been
taken from tumb!er of water In
which they had been placed overnight,
aad that dead bird had been left in
their stead. The teeth proved to be
| the Judges, The rats must have hsd
a high old time with the Judges teeth
before they reached my shanty with
| them and dumped them IN the nail
keg.
'.It used to be ravorite pastime
| with the wood rats to carry all sorts OF
refuse and garbage into houses and
scatter il about / have walked up
more than once to find some moist and
sweet-smelling tidbit from the swill
tub lying across my face, or number
/ OF them piled on the bed cover. This
peculiarly of the wood rat naturally
led to constant annoyance and mis-
understanding, aud newcomers into the
region, unacquainted with the ways of
the animal were frequently mystided
and sometimes frightened by occur
rences. 1 remember the case or an
Irish family that had newly arrived in
the neighborhood, where they had
! purchased little property. They had
| ,-~' b@an there a week before the rais
began 10 h-s-rN .rouble for them.
1 Denny Ryan, the heau ~ the family
placed his pipe on the table, =. Usual
before going TO bed one night When
lie arose in the morning the pipe was
gone, and where it had lain was a
taIlow candle. Denny had no such
thing as tallow candle in his house,
and no one in the house had touched
the pipe. This aroused his superstit-
ious feelings. lie related the circum-
stance TO some acquaintance with
much awe. Thsy saw probable fun in
store for them, and did not inform
Denny US 10 the cause or the mystery.
One morning, a few days later, Denny
found his lost pipe IN his boot, and the
sock he had lett there when he went
to bed was gone. Denny declared that
there were leprechauns or something in
his house. lie was thoroughly fright
ened and wanted to sell his property.
4 number of Eastern men had got
Iossession of some land next 10
Denny's, and his holding, they be-
lieved, would IN time be highly valu-
able. Unknown to any of Denny's
acquaintances, they made him an offer
for his property. 1t was less than he
had paid for 1t, and in spite of his
superstitious fears about his house he
refused to take it. y day or two after
that Denny found his stove half full
of potatoes, not one OF which had
been III the house before, and the kind
ling wood he had placed in the stove
the night before was piled on table
in the sitting-room. Without waiting
to entirely dress himself he hurried to
the parties who wanted to buy his
property and closed and clinched the
transaction at once. When his friends,
who had been keeping him in Ignorance
of the ways OF the wood rat for the joke
or 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, how
ever, Clipped In and made up quite a
sum of money for him. If the wood
rats hadn't bothered Denny he would
have been a rich man in a year or so,
for his property became worth many
| thousands Of dollars
The wood rat Is about the size OF ]
common house rat, with tail nine
inches long. II is gray on the back
and white on the belly. There's dew
iltry enough in one of them to fill q
woodchuck. You seldom see one ol
them, numerous as they are, for they
lay low in the daytime and never come
tooling around house at night If any
! ,ne ia astir in il ~