The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-10-19

A little man, with eyes blue as the heavens
and as keen as those of cat, is here making
series of peculiar contracts with the leading
hotel proprietors. The man In question is p.
II. Kendall, the noted New York rat-catcher,
who has a standing contract with the Red Star,
Inman, and Savannah steamship lines to ex-
plore their vessels Immediately upon their ar
rival at New York and rid them of any stray
rodents that may have gotten aboard. Ken dali
has held these contracts with the above steam
ship companies for several years. He also has
standing contracts with the Collonade, Belle
vue, and Washington hotels, of Philadelphia,
and has contracted with Postmaster General
Wanamaker to keep his immense establishment
in the Quaker City free of the frsky vermin
for the ensuing year. Kendall has established
his headquarters in this city at the Ashton
House, 313 Pennsylvania avenue, and has al
ready made annual contracts with the proprie-
tors of the Arlington, Willards Hotel, the
Richmond and Wormley's. He has several as
sistants, all foXy-looking individuals, who are
helping him to rid the famous Washington
hostleries of the thieving pests that nfest their
larders and cellars. At Wizards he has set
large trap of his own design, which has ca
pacity for several hundred rats, besides several
smaller ones, also of original and taking de-
sign. In less than hour after the big trap
was set the other night sixty-fve luckless long
| tailed rodents had become victims of its inge-
| "Before morning." said Kendall, 'it will be
| full.''
| He uses peculiar and quite odoriferous sort
| of bait which is equally as tempting to rat as
| a rotund red-meated watermelon is to the aver
| age Southern darkey. The large traps preserve
| the rats alive, and they are given or sold prin-
| cipally to the owners of rat pits, while the
smaller traps act as dead-fals and destroy their
| victims. Then many rats are captured by Ken
| dali and his assistants, who use bullseye Ian
| terms, which they flash in the faces of the pesky
| rodents when they are attracted from their holes
| by the odor of the bait
| 'sIhe flash of the lantern in their eyes, said
| Kendall, "paralyzes them for about ten seconds
or so, and then we pick them up, seizing them
by the back Of the neck just as cat would.
They do not resist, being apparently hypno-
tized for the time being. 1t reminds me some
| what of cat charming birds"
Referring to the popular belief among sailors
that the presence of rats on shipboard is sure
indication that the vessel is seaworthy and the
superstitious awe which attends the killing of
one by an unbeliever, Kendall said it was all
bosh, and stated that rats on vessel were the
verest nuisance They play havoc with the
cargo, weaken the ship at vulnerable points,
| and annoy the passengers and crew to such an
extent that ratcatching has become an every
trip necessity on the great ocean racers and
other ships.
"Afew nights ago. he said, 81 went over to
New York and when the Nacooche, one of the
steamers on the Savannah line, arrived in port
I went to work in her hold with flash lantern
and trap, and in a short time captured sixty
eight gaunt- looking gray Southern wharf rats
that had invaded the steamer during her brief
stay South On another big ocean steamer l
took $50 fat, sleek fellows in one night.''
Mr.. Kendall is an intelligent man and natu-
rally shrewd He does not believe in the class
of rat-catchers who go about agreeing to rid
great hotels of the pests in single night, and
says it cannot be done. Neither does he believe
in the use of ferrets. He has seen them en-
ployed in New York and they proved inglorous
failures. After a ferret has sucked the blood of
one or two large rats, he said, its appetite is
satisfied and the ferret is ready to go off some
where and take a quiet nap. On the other
hand, If they are muzzled the ferrets are liable
to stray off in one of the rat holes underground
getllost, and eventually starve to death.
Kendall worked on the Washington hotels
until yesterday morning, when he left for New
York to meet the steamships Noordland, of the
Red Star Line, and the City of Berlin, of the
Inman Line, to explore their below deck re-
gions in seaach of any stray rodents that have
been playing the role of stowaways since his
last inspection.
His half weeks work in the Washington
hotels was eminently successful, the capture
of over one thousand gay and festive rats will
. testify. He has made contracts with the pro
prietors for year, and proposes to hereafter
make his headquarters in this city, Next week
it is said, some of the captured rats will be
used by certain Washington sporting men in Q
series of rat killing contests with terriers
across the river