Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-08-05

AN H. IL BcScFhAatut AT w bSA-
llll I'M ington. Until re-
! !
|l[lQkA vAMll Gently the White
~>GSyM1LRQnI House has been in
A W. Tested by myriads Of
NV ~ rats. They were
~ v cleaned out at the be-
nj ~ ginning Of the Har-
~J rison administration
~[MDkk " by an expert with
ferrets. He carefully
stopped up all Of the
holes except one. in
to which he intro
ouceo the ferrets. The rodents fed out of
tneir labyrinthine underground passages
through the only exit left open, at which
trained Scotch terriers stood waiting to
erap and Kill them with a shake apiece. The
ierrets do most important service by seek
ing out the nests Of young rats and eating
tneir brains. OF which they are extremely
iono. On the occasion referred to the
wooden floors in the basement Of the Exc
cutive Mansion were taken I'D and concrete
was laid down instead This was done
mainly for the purpose of keeping out such
1our-footed foes In the future. The mice
In the building are few. by reason of the
emciency Of black and white cat that
strayed in and settled down in the kitchen
four years ago.
When Grant became President for the
Mrs. Grant demanded the removal of the
stable. which then adjoined the building on
me east. But the destruction of the stable
INV T,a not .oa remove the rodent pests In fact,
up the fat colored cook as she walked
s,s the kitchen. and she killed it by sit
network, Of tunnels under the brick pave
ments and in the walls. They were not con-
tent tent with ordinary food, but preferred the
remnants OF state dinners-particularly
chicken crOQuetteS and pate @ fois
Crump. steward of the White House under
Hayes. swore that a banquet committee Of
each night for the purpose of fading out
what would be served for dinner the next
Gay. AS early as President Johnson's time
tne Vermln had become very numerous in
tne mansion. This was unfortunate be-
cause there were persons at that time
resident IN the executive establishment to
Wnom the presence Of rats real or imagf-
nary was particularly Objectionable. Sub
sequently, the superintendent of public
out effect.
In the Pension once.
The pension office is the chosen haunt of
rats. Swarms OF them adopted the building
as their home while it was as yet in pro-
cess OF construction. At present the walls
OF their holes. They feed on the remnants
OF Z;0O0 daily lunches eaten in the building
s sue scraps commonly find their way to
RODENTS as breeding place. The watch
men tried at one time to reduce their num-
t Iers oy shooting them with air guns. but
tnose weapons were rot very effective At
night rustling Is often heard among the
contents Of the big waste baskets, which
the dumping place Then the guards Dick
up the suspected basket softly and carry il
to the fountain in the middle of the great
oblige Mr. Rat to jump into the water. IL
ne succeeds In swimming out, they dispatch
him with their clubs
pension ONCE attempted to ''shoo" a rat
from beneath her desk by whisking her
skirts at IT. A moment later she gave ut
terance to a series of alarming shrieks and
PECAN 70 Jump up and down. The animal
nad run up inside Of her dress and found
,i tSSdssm r Mt on her hip. where she felt II
ding Presently it Topped out and made its
escape but the victim has never boosted
weakness of her sex in respect to the do e
mestic rodent. In the same building SPAR
rows are almost as great a nuisance as the
make their nests BY hundreds among the
timbers beneath the lofty roof. Every day
the scrub women have to make a task Of
mopkng up their droppings. In summer
pigeons ny In through the open windows
and raise families on the premises Some
OF these are "homers." lost on Journeys
Damage In the Post once.
Rats used to do a great deal of damage
at the Post Office Department. They ate
quantities OF monay orders and postal
notes. as well as blank books. Much dam
age was done by them to dead packages
IN the store room for such goods. The dead
letter ofiice would notify a person that a
parcel addressed to him was held for lack
o. o. SUFFICIENT sumo postage In case of this sort
postage was received, the contents of the
bundle were gobbled up. This was embar-
RAISING and calculated to make trouble.
wears RI fnh
ployed. He brought ferrets and cleared out
the building. Incidentally. he astonished
~ all arSund the
ing his way beneath the flooring of the sub
basement where there was no space to
wrigsle through save such as had been left
in putting down the sewer and gas pipes
This ferret-ltke proceeding is very destruc-
tive to health. on account of the bad air
hundred and odd cats are regularly kept
on the rolls of the Post Office Department,
to prevent rats from eating the contents
OF mail bags. They are distributed among
lowed from IS to $40 for their subsistence
In Other Departments.
Formerly rats were very bad at the patent
ONCE. but they were driven out with fer
rets They used to chew up a great many
valuable papers. making their nests among
the stacks OF patent records, covering half
q million Inventions, which occupy many
thousand cubic feet in the basement. The
down IN numbers by nearly a score Of cats
The latter are mostly the offspring of home
less pussies which strayed into the building
They are regularly fed and no change Of
administration turns them out notwith-
standing the fact that they are not protect
ed by the civil service law. The Pied Piper
who does this kind Of work SAYS that he
never knew q ferret to be badly hurt in a
CONNECT with rats, except In one Instance
The latter are usually too panic-stricken
to defend themselves. Once in a while It
occurs that one Of these hunting animals
sucks the blood of a rat and goes to sleep
below ground On waking 1t forgets which
way 1t came in and is lost. A ferret lost
IN this manner at the Post Office Depart
ment turned up two or three days later In
street.
Rats are very numerous in the War State
and Navy building. They swarm in the
endorsement, particularly in the waste-pa-
per room. Children who go to this room for
the purpose Of obtaining foreign postage
stamps from State Department envelopes
are often frightened by the scampering they
hear All sorts Of traps have been tried
The most successful is the kind that has a
tipping cover. which let's Mr.. Rat fall in
when he sleeps on II. A continuance Of this
description sometimes catches fifteen or
twenty rats in q single night. 1t is better
than the traps that kill, because the latter
soon acquire an odor which frightens the
rodents away. Sometimes they die among
the coils OF the heating apparatus end
make lot Of trouble. Cats are Of no use
for the reason that they quickly die. per-
Out Of dozens that have been introduced
q hor