The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-08-16
THE WAR OF THE RATS
White Rodents Trained to Extor-
inmate Their Brown Brothers.
Dogs and Ferrcts Gave Baltic to tho
Pests, but tho Japanese Rats
Proved Gedscnd to
"Luclsy" baldwin.

| Lucky" Baldwin had rats in his gar
ret-that is to say in the garnet of his
big hotel, says the San Francisco EX-
aminer Large brown rats they were,
and ill-bred, too, inasmuch as they
didn't know better than to wander
into rooms occupied by ladies ut I'M
seasonablc hours CT the night Some
times they would intrudc upon a pri-
vate dining party, and cause lively
scattering among the participants.
They had possession of the basement as
well as the garnet, and made them
selves ut home on each of the five
floors. Baldwin was in despair. His
cronics were wont to shout "Rats!' Just
for the fun of seeing him jump. Finally
he sent east for Il couple of blooded
Scotch terriers, with pcdigrees as long
as one of Blair's speeches. They were
installed in the basement where the ed
ibles are kept. At the end of the first
! day old Silas, the colorcd charge
d'affaires of the culinary department,
said ''one hundred and siXtyfour" as
the carcass Of the last dead rat dropped
into IN ash barrel The dogs killed
then ut the rate of n hundred day for
week. Then the rats moved from the
basement to the other parts of the ho-
tel 1t was impossible to keep
dogs all over the house, so Baldwin
bought two fcrrets and hired n man to
take charge of them. The long. slender
little animals did great service. Fer
rcts arc the natural enemies of rats and
can follow them into any hole, no mat
ter how small. The ferrct's method of
killing his rat is to fight until he gets a
hold on the rats throat, and then
dead rnt. There is IN unpleasant
feature about it, though. After
killing his rat the ferret sucks the body
dry of blood ind leaves it in the hole
The odor became so unbcarablc that
Baldwin was forced to Danish the fer
rets. Frequently the fcrrets became so
gorged with blood that they found diff
Guilty In emerging from holes which
they entered with comparative ease.
After the ferrets left the hotel the rats
commenced to multiply again. A bril-
liant genius who inhabits the basement
had IN idea White rats were what he
thought of. Baldwin sent to Japan
and imported nine of them. They were
in shape the snmc as an ordinary brown
pure white IN color, and they had pink
| SJCo- nc BChtAS al Vic OGSClaC1U
knew how to handle them. He put
them in n large cage, fed them well ind
made them understand that the cage
was their home. When he had made
| friends with all Of them he turned
them loose The brown rats COM
menccd to decrease in numbers at
n surprising rate. The chaps from Jap
an "bosscd the roost," as they do not
say In Parco. They chased the brown
rats to their holes fought them, killed
them and dragged the bodies out for
the genius to gaze upon. He had
trained them to do that. and the result
was that no dead rats were left in tho
holes
Sometimes the white rats would be
badly laccratcd. but their courage was
of the right sort, and they never failed
to attack n brown rat on sight
Another good feature of the white rats
was that, being we'll fed, they rcvcr
stole food or tried to get away. They
were at liberty 10 roam ct will over the
entire building. Being docilc, not in
the least timid and pretty creatures. the
ladies and children in the hotel made
playthings of them. From floor to floor
they pursued the brown rats, and final
ly drove them frcra the building alto
gcther. Now you couldn't find n br0wn
rat in the hotel if you searched week.
One or two of the white rats took wives
from among the brown rats, and their
progeny had spots like coach dogs and
pinl. eyes. But the female white rats
made war on their brown sisters and
forced them away. Baldwin's brow is
free from care. and he talks Of starting
white rat farm On his ranch near Los
Angeles