Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1892-08-16
Finn for All Three.

gray rat capering over the folds of a
lot of summer dress goods in the big
show window of a Wyoming avenue
dry goods store. 4 nearby arc lamp
made the window almost as light as
day, and when the man had watched
the gamboling of the rat for a few
moments, he stepped up and tapped on
the plate glass with his finger. AT
that the rat skipped behind a standing
frock pattern and peeped out at the
visitor. Then the man held the fire
end of cigar close to the glass, and
the rat Immediately scampered from his
hiding place, jumped against the pane,
and tried to get at the glowing cigar.
He butted his nose against the glass
until he satisfied himself that he
couldn't reach the red spot on the out
side, and then he backed off few
inches, wriggled his smellers violently,
and blinked at the man. Next, the rat stu
dent took few pufis at the cigar, and
the rat climbed to the top of a stack
of dress goods and eyed him curiously.
Then the man knocked off the ashes
and moved the fire end from one side
of the window to the other near the
floor, and the rat ran down at once,
chased the cigar back and forth half a
dozen times, bumped his head against
the glass, and made strenuous efforts to
seize the cigar. For 20 minutes the rat
danced against the pane, and when the
cigar was smoked up he lay down close
to the glass and painted as though he
was all out of breath. Presently the
man struck wax match and held it
toward the window, and the rat in
stantly hoped up and skedaddled out
of sight. He returned in short time,
and the man lighted another cigar and
kept the rat dancing until he became so
exhaused that he could hardly crawl.
At about the same hour ON Tuesday
night the man went to the window
again. The rat wasn't in sight, but he
popped into the window as soon as the
student had begun to tap on the pane,
and he started to dance over the dress
goods the moment the man held the
lighted end of his cigar close to the
glass. When the rat began to pant,
the man stuck bit of toasted cheese in
a corner of the sash. The rat sprang to
the corner, got scent of the cheese, and
began to scratch and squeal to get
at it. When the cheese was re-
moved, the rat sat up on his
hindquarters, gazed at the man,
and licked his chops as though he was
hald starved. Soon he went to nib
bling at the starch in the goods, and
when the man started to go away the
rat ran across the window, jumped
against the glass, and acted as if he
wanted to follow.
On Wednesday night the rat student
passed the store at 10 o'clock. The
rat was watching for him, and he be-
gan to caper and dance against the pane
when the man took out cigar to light
it. He cut up till he couldn't stand,
and half an hour later the man found
the tired and hungry rat sound asleep
on the dress goods in the bright electric
light.
1t was nearly II o'clock when the
man went to the window on Thursday
night. The rat was perchcd on top of
pile of goods, waiting for the man
to come, and he ran down to the floor
of the window and started to frolic and
dance before the student had chance
to light cigar. Just rs the man was
about to hold his cigar toward the
glass, and while the confiding rat was
playfully hopping up the pane, there
was gray flash from behind piece of
goods, something struck the glass with
a thud, and the astonished student saw
his four-footed nocturnal pet struggling
and squealing in the claws of fine
large gray cat. He yelled at the cat,
but puss understood her business, and
in an instant she had the dancing rat
by the neck, and went out of sight be-
hind the dress goods in a twinkling.