The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1890-11-13
FUN FOR THE CATS.
A Trained Company That Goes
Rat-Hunting Every Night.
How tho Watchman OF n Carpet Factory
Gathered Together Mighty Army.
of FelineB - Hundreds of Rats
Kill ed in n Few Moments.

There is q big carpet factory at the
loot of West Forty-third treet, says the
New York Sun. The firm has plenty of
brains to know what it needs, and
plenty of money to procure it. But there
Is one thing the members of the firm
can't do in spite of all their brains and
They can't keep rats out of
their wool, and their failure in this re-
spect costs them many thousands of dol
lars. They have two big storehouses
that were built with an eye to protec-
ton against rats. The foundations run
down many feet, the floors are of solid
cement, and the walls are of brick. The
value of the wool stored in these two
buildings is sometimes as much as
can be got. The rats don't know one
kind from another, perhaps, but it near
ly always happens that as much of this |
selected wool is ruined every night as
of the cheaper kind.
When thick walls and many watch
men failed to defeat the rats it was de-
cided to see what an army of cats would
do. Cats were invited to the factory
yard by means Of many pounds of fresh
meat set out as free lunch every day.
The invitation soon became known to all
tho cats in the neighborhood. They all
responded, but the firm soon discovered
that they needed training, for the mo-
ment the lunch was over they trotted
demurely away, and were seen no more
until the next day. The watchman who
is on duty at night began making
friends of them, and pretty soon he was
at liberty to approach any of them with
out fear of getting scratched or of
frightening them away. When this
stage was reached, the big doors Of the
factory yard were closed one day and
the cats were prisoners. They didn't
like it very much, but their embarrass-
ment disappeared under the tender
treatment of the watchman, and they
soon became reconciled to the situation.
1t is necessary for the watchman to
make a tour of all the buildings at short
intervals during the night, and the OBJ
ject was to get the cats to search the
buildings before he entered and fright
ened the rodents by his tread. 1t didn't
take much practice before the cats un-
derstood that a rapid journey through
the buildings at night was pretty sure
to result in an entertaining scrap with
some big rat, and as the time for the
journey was about the time when they
were ready for something more to eat,
they entered into the thing with great
spirit. Then it happened that as soon
as night came and the many hundreds
of employees had trooped out and the
watchman began rigging up his lantern
for the nights vigil the cats would
gather about him in great swarm,
mewing and jumping up eagerly. AT
present there are about two hundred
cats on duty in the factory, and it is a
picturesque thing to see the watchman
start from the Office door and stride
down into the black cavern of the yard
with the cats streaming out behind him
like the outstretched tail of horse,
those nearest him jumping about his
legs and rubbing their bodies purringly
against him. When the watchman
reaches the door leading into the first
factory and begins fnmbling with his
ring Of keys the cats surround him, and
the moment the door swings back they
burst into the building like great wave
that has burst its dam, and run over the
whole building as noiselessly and swift
ly as water runs. The wa1chman stands
below in the doorway awaiting them.
Occasionally he hears sudden rush, a
few sharp growls, frightened squeak
or two, and then he knows that the cats
have found victim.
1t sometimes happens that rat
weighing as much as five pounds Is
killed. OF course one cat couldn't
master big fellow like this, and his
death proves that the cats are on good
terms, and that they stick together in a
fight. These big fellows are dock rats
who come up from the water in search
of change of food. When cat runs a
rat into hole the other cats spread out
like sentinels and guard all the pass
sages leading from it. Then the watch
man either turns the bale over or pokes
the rat out with stick, and the moment
he makes break for liberty, that mo-
ment he is gobbled up.
But in spite OF all this vigilance and
care, every morning the workmen find
wool spread over the floor that has been
torn from the bales by the rats, and that
much is dragged out of the building
there can be no doubt. 1t may be that
in time the cats will succeed in killing
all the rats or in frightening them of.
AS it is, many are killed, but their places
seem to be taken by others.
Just now the watchman is grieving
ovar the loss of one bip cat that was a
mighty killer Of rats, and usually led
the charge against the very big fellows.
He was troubled with heas, and the
watchman, to relieve him of them,
sprinkled him with flea powder. The
cat didn't like to be in soiled state,
and SO removed the powder in the way
usual to cats, and died.