The Coconino sun., 1891-06-27
THE SEIGE OF THE RATS.
HOW THE WHITE RODENTS CAR
RED ON A WAR!
Dogs and Ferrets Gave Battle to the
Pests, But the Japanese Rats
Made Quick Work of Their
bad, Brown Brothers.

'ItGky" Baldwin had rats in his
garret-that is to say, in the garret Of
his big hotel--says the San Francisco
Examiner. Large brown rats they
were, and ill-breed, too, inasmuch as
they didn't know better than to wan
der into ROOMS occupied by ladies at
unreasonable hours Of the night.
Sometimes they would intfude Upon Il
private dining party and cause live
ly scattering among the participants.
They had possession Of the basement
as we'll as the garnet and made them
selves at home on each OF the five
floors. Baldwin was in despair. His
cronies were wont to shout "Rats!"
just to see him jump.
Finally he sent east for a couple OF
blooded Scotch terriers, with pedi-
grees long as one Of Blairs speeches.
They were installed in the basement,
where the -edibles are kept. AT the
end of the first day, old Silas, the
colored charge d'alfaires OF the ctili
nary department, said "l64," as the
carcass of the last dead rat dropped
into an ash barrel. The dogs killed
them dt the rate Of 100 day for a
week. Then the rats moved from the
basement to the other parts OF the
hotel. II was impossible to keep dogs
all over the house, so Baldwin bought
two ferrets and hired man to take
charge Of them. The long, slender
little animals did great service. Fer
rets are the natural enemies Of rats,
and can follow them into any
hole, no matter how small.
The Ferret's method of killing his rats
is to fight until he gets tight hold on
the rats throat, and then-dead rat
There is an unpleasant feature about
it, though. After killing his rat the
ferret sucks the body dry OF blood and
leaves it in the hole. The odor be-
came SO unbearable that Baldwin was
forced to Danish the ferrets. FIRE.
Guertly the ferrets became so gorged
with blood that they found difficulty in
emerging from holes which they en-
tered with comparative ease. After
the ferrets left the hotel the rats COM
menced to multiply again. A brilliant
genius who inhabits the basement had
an idea. White rats were what he
thought Of Baldwin sent to Japan
and imported nine OF them. They
were in shape the same rs an ordinary
brown rat, but they were much larger
and pure white in color, and they had
pink eyes.
The genius in the basement knew
how to handle them. He put them in
large cage, fed them we'll, and made
them understand that the cage was
their home. When he had made
friends OF all OF them he turned them
loose. The brown rats commenced To
decrease at surprising rate. The
chaps from Japan "bossed the roost, v
as they do not say in Parsee. They
chased the brown rats into their holes,
fought them, killed them, and dragged
their bodies out for genius to gaze
upon. He had trained them to dc
that and the result was that no dead
rats were left in the holes.
Sometimes the white rats would De
badly larcerated, but their courage
was OF the right sort, and they never
failed to attack brown rat on sight.
Another good feature of the white rats
was that being well fed, they never
stole food or tried to get away. They
were at liberty to roam at will over
the entire building Being docile,
not In the least timid, and pretty crea-
lures, the ladies and children in the
hotel made playthings OF them. From
floor to floor they pursued the brown
rats, and finally drove them from the
building altogether. Now you couldn't
find brown rat in the hotel II you
searched q week. One or two of the
white rats took wives from among the
brown rats, and their progeny hat
spots like coach-dogs, and pink eyes
But the female white rats made wal
on their brown sisters, and forced
them away.