Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-12

I g.; g. 6: :: :::' ; !: T.:
cH "a slant and most aggrava-
H. F'a1SEzY8 ting source Of expense
E About once a month on
an average get COM
plant from one or
another Of my tenants that a dead rat under
| the floor or in the wall is making itself impos-
sible. If l don't attend to the matter imme-
diately / am pretty apt to receive within week
notice to the effect that the house or fiat has
been rendered uninhabitable and that the peo-
pie will be compelled to move out unless some
thing is done without further delay to remove
the nuisance. Now. admit that dead rat is
unpleasant. but il does not take one such crea-
ture more than six weeks to become entirely
inoffensive through the ordinary processes Of
decomposition. Thus, sometimes think that
tenants might exercise little patience rather
than compel me to go to the trouble of tearing
everything up, often at considerable cost. and
all for miserable deceased rodent Why. ]
do assure you that l have been obliged to
spend literally thousands of dollars within the
last few years in finding dead rats, for which
certainly had no use whatever and which
would insist upon maliciously diving on prem
ises owned by me. There was one house in par
tlcular that cost me half its rent for two or
three years in rats. 1t was occupied
as tenement by several families, and they
would all of them threaten to move about once
In three months on such an account Time
after time sent carpenters to the house and
paid big bills for having the offense removed
but regularly after few weeks had elapsed the
trouble would be renewed. So hired new
carpenter and went to the house with him to
watch operations. He quickly found the rat
underneath the stairs in box-shaped Enclosure
built under the steps for some purpose, the
nature OF which / did not learn. The box was
about two feet deep and rats, running through
| hole they had gnawed in the wall from the
next house, fell in sometimes and were unable
to jump out again. They could not gnaw their
way out, either, because the box was of cedar,
which, owing to the manner in which it splin-
tiers, defes rats teeth, aud so they starved to
death. Every time the carpenters were sent to
the tenement, after their first experience, they
had gone straight to the box. fished out the
rat, nailed down the step again and sent me
good round bill for the job. / simply sealed
up the hole that led from the next house her.
metically and there was no trouble after that.
LOCATING THE CORPSE.
"The great difficulty in the case of rat that
has died in the house is to find out where the
corpse is. So penetrating and diffusive is the
peculiar odor produced by it that it is often
well nigh impossible to locate its source with
any degree Of accuracy. l have known two
entire doors OF a dwelling to be torn up before
rat that lay between the beams could be
found. Ii it has persisted in the wall the prob
lem Is likely to be very serious. There was a
man In Baltimore once who had a dog that
possessed an extraordinary accomplishment in
this way. The animal was trained to find dead
rats by scent, and when he had come to the
place in wall or floor where the Objectionable
object was hidden he would pause and point.
In another city there is very extraordinary
person who earns a large income by the skillful
employment of his own nose for similar scent
ing purposes. The organ SO valuable to him
In this way Is naturally acute, but owes its pre-
ternatural sharpness to habitual rat hunting.
When he enters a house that is to be investi-
gated he first gives few shifts to find out
in general way the whereabouts Of the corpse
sought for. Then, after finding in this way the
particular room or passageway to be seriously
suspected, he noses around, keeping lookout
for such likely spots as those beneath fire.
places, where rats often 60 for warmth in win
ter Having spotted what he thinks is the right
place he bores an augur hole and shifts at it.
If 1t Is find it simply remains to make the
hole bigger and take out the offensive carcass.
His charge is always IS for each rat removed,
whether it takes him five minutes or a week to
find it. If he lived in Washington should be
glad to employ him at that rate; it would save
me great deal of money. There is a fine
opening in Washington for such rat hunter
1t Is not a pleasant occupation, sentimentally
ASPECTS.
Il nave Tedu tudt people IN siam keep rats Tor
pets instead of cats. The animals seem to fol-
low man and may fairly be classed as .domes-
tic They came from Asia originally, where
the human race had its origin, and wherever
mankind has gone they have pursued They
are of two great varieties, the black and the
brown. The black rat entered Europe by way
of Astrachan four centuries ago. and the brown
| or Norway rat followed zoo years later Cor
rectly speaking the brown rat is not a Norway
| rat at all, but Persian rat. The brown rat
being larger and tiercer than the black rat has
| almost driven its weaker cousin out of exist
| ence. Not very many years ago the common
rat in this country was the black variety with
| the long tail and big ears, and the brown rats
were only known as ship rats and dock rats
But the black rats have almost disappeared
since then, while the brown rats are spread all
over the inhabited part of this continent. The
black rat went over to England with William
the Conqueror, and the brown rat accompa-
MED the Hanoverian dynasty in its voyage
across the channel. These facts are historical
Frogs were formerly very plentiful in Ireland,
but the rats ate them all up, that now there
are none at all. In Paris grand rat battue is
made tremendously festive celebration once
year below the streets and pavements in the
great sewers of the city, but it is not true that
the skins are ever used for making kid gloves
though such statement has been 50 persist
emily circulated. The bite of a rat is ALWAYS
dangerous, but that Of a sewer rat particularly
SO because its teeth are apt to be poisoned with
decayed garbage"