The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-07
UNCLE SANS CATS.
Their Usefulness in the Govern.
ment Offices.
Hundreds of the Feliues Are Kept Among
the Post Offices to Prevent tbs
DePredatioks of Rats Upon
Man Matter.

Three hundred and odd cats are main
tanned by the United States govern
ment, the cost Of their support being
carried as a regular item on the &C
counts Of the post Office department
They are distributed among about fifty
post Offices. and their duty is TO keep
rats and mice from eating postal matter
and mail sacks. Their work is of the
utmost Importance wherever large
quantities of mail are collected-as, for
example. at the New York post office,
where from two to three thousand
bags Of such material are commonly
slowed away in the basement.
Formerly. says the New York World,
great damage was often done By mis-
chievous rodents, which chewed holes
in the sacks and thought nothing of
boring clear through bags of letters in
a night. Troubles of this sort no longer
occur, now that the official pussies keep
watch Ea ch city postmaster is al
year for the keep of his feline staff,
sending his estimate for 'cat meat" TO
Washington at the beginning OF each
quarter. Care is taken not to feed the
animals too high" in order that their
appetite for live game may be keen. It
is laid down as rule that no meat shall
be given when there is mouse or rat
to be caught.
Cats are kept in all the government
buildings at Washington. In that Of
the state, war and navy departments
they are employed not only to protect
the priceless paper stored there but to
guard against fire. Twice the war de-
partment has been set aire By rats
gnawing matches-on one of these occa-
sions in the Office OF the secretary of war
in the middle OF the night. A year ago
the treasury had nine cats, but they
made themselves obnoxious and were
all given away but two. These are as
wild as possible, getting a living by
foraging for themselves. Mice are no.
toriously fond of chewing up money,
but they have no chance of getting at
Uncle Sans paper cash, which is kept
in rooms with iron walls that defy their
teeth. Rats occupied the pension Office
in great numbers while it was in proc
ess of building, taking up their resi-
dence in the walls and floors as fast as
they We're put up. Two years ago four
cats were introduced there to guard the
records of the old soldiers, and they
The best rat-lziller of the quartette not
long ago, being frightened at some
thing, fell from the second gallery,
fifty feet, to the tiled floor and was
killed. The white honse has two cats,
one n black and white female, kept in
the kitchen, and the other a black tom,
kept in the stable Mrs. Harrison had
But the capitol is the greatest place
in Washington for cats. The huge
building swar1ns with them and at
night they scamper about in troops
Nobody knows how many of them
there are, but the watchmen reckon
them by scores. They are all Migrants
and wild as hawks. In summer they
are scattered about the neighborhood
to some extent, but in winter they
gather within the building. At about
ten o'clock every night they begin a
mad racing through the empty cor
ridors, which are made to resound
with their cries. The acoustic effects
produced are astonishing. Let a single
grimallzin lift up his voice in statuary
hall, famous for its echoes, and the
silence of the night is broken by yell
as loud as a locomotive whistle. A
favorite place for cat concerts is the
gallery down below, known
as the crypt, where the feeblest sound
Is rnaCnified into roar.