Wichita eagle., 1889-01-27
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Daily Eagle
SHE CAUGHT THE RAT.
How Mrs. Billikins Succeeded In
Entrapping a Rodent.
The Very Discouraging Consequences of Fea
male Stras*ssy-How a Shrewd Woman
Punished Her Husband for Inter.
fering With Her Traps.
fChicago Ledger.l

The other day, as MIS- Dllllkln5 was
about to put down a paper into which sue
had been wadng for an hour, in breath
less anxiety to fad out whether the blue
eyed maiden who had been tossed ashore
in a sugar hogshead when babe, turned
cut to be the Countess de Longear and
married the red-nosed scalawag, or
whether she was restored to her friends,
and mated to Sir Timothy Titebute, OF
Litulbrane Hail. as she ardenty hoped,
her eye happened to fall on paragraph
that gave her thinking machinery turn
in another direction. 1t was TO the effect
that a good way to catch a rat was to
turn boot down on the floor, close to the
wall, and as the rat went around theroom
1t would run into it, and when he got
there set I'D the boot, and there he was.
ssThat sounds like good SENSE" she
unused. sand / wonder I never thought OF
1t myself"
The Maison de Billikins is strongly in
tested with rats, and the good woman did
not have long to wait for an opportunity
to try the experiment. There was one old
veteran who had become 80 bold that he
would dart out into the sitting room near
ly every hour in the day.
''l'll FIX him; see if l DON'T" said Mrs.
B., as she went to another room and came
back with a pair of boots, which she
placed near the wall on opposite sides Of
the room, and then bidsd her time.
In few minutes out came the rat, and
Mrs B. at once cut off retreat by
throwing a shawl over the hole from
which he had emerged. The experiment
al 4ta h
according to pr ogramma Just then came
a ring at the door bell, and, hastily pick
ing up the boots and putting them in
corner, she went to the door. Her WIS.,
itors proved TO be a couple OF lady
friends, who had called to talk about
church matters and get her judgment as
to whether blue ribbon or pink would be
the more suitable trimming for a certain
so-and so They remained for some time,
and she became so absorbed in the themes
discussed that she forgot all about the
rat in the boot, and went to the kitchen TO
look after household m alters
1t happened that Billikins received
call unexpectedly that day to run up to
Milwaukee on a business mission for his
employers, and went home to change his
hurt his feet Not finding them in the
bedroom where he had placed them, he
went into the sitting-room and noticed
them standing in tho corn er. Thinking
that he mi ght have left them there. he at
once set about putting them on. The first
one went on all right, but when heunder-
took the second there was war. He dis
covered with much suddenness tn at some
thing with life and teeth was on the in
sid. The rat seized him by the big toe
and dsfed him to proceed. Bllikins
AYERS that at that awful moment he dis
tine ly heard his hair cracking in: its
efforts TO stand on end in spite of his
tight-fitting plug hat. He went hopping
about the room on one foot, yelling for
his wife, and biaspheming with all the
energy in him.
Hearing the racket, and not expecting
him home at that time OF day, his wife's
wits went visiting, and she got so badly
FRI ghtened her back hair dropped of, az
8. 2 rushed out of the side entrance and
into the street, where brass band was
Just going down the sidewalk on the way
TO fill an en- ,agement somewhere in the
neighburhood. In a voice like a gallop
she toll them a lot of thieves had broken
into her house, ard were f lighting over the
plumber aid smashing up the furniture
N re than dreadful. Going back with
this stro1g re- en- iorcement. she pointed
to the sitting room door, and the melody
puffsr rush II in. The man with the bic
horn laid down his instrument and col
Jared Billikins wi a remors sless grip
that ma le him black in the face be ore his
wife could get into the room and tell the
muscular musician that he not thief
and robber as she had supposed, but an
honest man W tn bot full OF m s ortune,
who had cried aloud in a voice so laden
with woe that she did not recognize the
accents that had won her heart in maid.
enhood.
"But don't let tina rat Get awayn she
excla med, as she sla uned the door to
and ran to wad corner of the shawl into
the rat-hole SO tightly that the old fellow
couldn't es cape by that route. 'While
we've got him we might as well take care
OF him."
Ana then she got up on the top Of the
cab net organ and told them all about
how she mad trapped the rat and what
Z
band people laughed until the house
shook, and Blllikins shot ont new as
sortment Of mailed ctions, in which fe-
male stupidity got the biggest in the
bunch.
"Dadsz woman any way," said he
" th apparent warmth. That's the wav
with every last gid-splintered one of
them. They're always Matching up some
tn NJ to PLAY the very old knock kneed
Be lzehub with the men who drudgs till
their shoulders droop for the sake OF
EN-"
But long before he had & finished this ex-
,rdium he had got the boot off and was
sitting on the floor nurs ng has bleeding
'oes. and anathematizing that rat in all
.ongues known and unknown, While the
at itself was skipping about the room
Aluding the hand boys like luck dodgipy \
ioor man, and the woman on top of the
,rgan was throwing up her hands and
creaminy like an opera niger spraining
ler lungs in quest of high notes.
The rat ina " lodged into the bass horn
md lost himself. and found an asylum IN
he labyrinth of its windings The biz
ed-taced man who makes a living ov
orcing air through the instrument loaded
10 his lungs and blew until he turned
White and loosened his scalp: but the rat
ield the fort, and holds is yet for all we
inve been able 10 learn TO thu contrary.
Lless ferre can be ound small enough
o go throu 10y the same route the music
'ursueS and chase the rodent the other
Fav' 1t loo ks as though the tone Of the in
trument was permanently injured.