The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-01-23
RAT-CATcHiNG IN ENGLAND.
A Sport in Which Many Bold Britons
Take Great DELIGHT.


Take Great Delight.
Though the tenant and the landlord,
the keeper and the gardener be-
wall the plague Of rats, says the Lon
don Globe. there is one parsonage who
is delighted at it's existence, and that is
the lazy, sport-loving, poaching village
wastrel, who finds in rat-catching an
employment that at once gratities his
inclination for out-of-doors recreation
and yields g, respectable wage without
excessive toll. In Norfolk there hardly
seems to be hamlet without one or
two men of this kind in it, and, being
in that county about fortnight ago, l
took {, fancy to watch a forenoon's rat
catching. That was no difficult matter.
You cannot take a walk without COM
ing across some one engaged IN it.
The specimen I stumbled upon was q
stifiy-built but strong-made veteran OF
sixty or SO, with a bristly gray mus
tache, a big voice, q sharp eye, and a,
Joke ready for every occasion.
His implements were a long spade
with an iron hook on the handle, a
sickle for clearing away nettles and I'm
aergrowth, and "a box which contained
his ferrets and a number Of glass-stop-
oered bottles. 1.-The varmin bit So he
explained, she had to carry ointments
and balsnns to dress the wounds. :"
Taking up one Of his ferrets he showed
where it's head was all Scared with
soothmarks. For the protection OF his
own hands he wore stout channels
leather gloves. But the most interest,"
ing part of his equipment consisted Of
;he slnarpest looking dogs have ever
seen. The fancier who administers
small doses of arsenic in order to make
the coats look we'll on the bench might
we'll have eny;ed them the healthy,
glistening skins produced by constant
work in the open. Yet the creatures
themselves were hopeless raongrels, in
color and shape not unlike Scotch ter
ciers, but larger.
hole was just being finished as I
went up. lis there any more, Bob?''
asked the rat catcher, addressing, just
as if he had been a Christian, the most
aged Of his followers. Bob shifted and
turned away. ''All right" said his
ula:otcf. 20 Oh w blAt lN;At' A'cC
wagged his tail and set off along the
bank of the dyke, merely glancing at
several little borrowings. II follows
Boh,' remarked the man, as he gath
cred up his traps together. ''There!
he's found EN- and sure enough the
terrier had stopped and made a dead
point" fifty yards along the ditch, and
f.,I- |,f IA
box than he planted himself in front Of
one 'bol5 hole" His companions chose
two more, and the whole three stood
alert and vigilant. but perfectly still,
while the ferret WAS put in. Hardly
had that been done for a couple Of min
utes ere the rats, large and small, be-
gan to dash out into the very jaws Of
the dogs.
Fifteen had been killed and then
came an interval that made MS think
the last was finished. But when we at
tempted to move Bob gave a whimper
and a little scratch at the earth he was
watching. Il nun dig him out" said
the man, and a few well~tlirected polzes
with "a spade disclosed a rat that might
have been the father Of the tribe,
caught in q blind alley. A single snap
was enough to lay aim dead, and Bob,
with his customary sniff, turned heels
and WAS Oft to new quarters. This time
his point was made opposite thick
hedge, the Cry ditch running alongside
being quite choked up with briars net
Ties and weeds.
With the reaping hook these were
soon cleared away, however, and some
Idea Of the extent to which the ver1niu
prevail may be judged from the fact
that at least half a. dozen <'loose" rats
were killed before the ferrets were
used at all. I imagined a splendid
days work had been accomplished
when eighty-six rats had been killed,
and both terriers, ferrets aud men were
obviously becoming: tagged with the
work.
For it must be remembered that the
creatures had not congregatecl in one
place, as they do IN corn rick, but
were all found in open country-that is
to say, in the boundary ditch and
hedges of a turnip field. But subse-
quent inquiry showed that the slaugh~
ter had not been exceptionally large,
two men having between them killed
two hundred and forty-three in q single
morning on an adjacent farm.