Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1895-04-19
HOW TO KEEP A STRANGE CAT.
Cut Off It's Tall and Bury 1t Under
the Doorstep.

the Doorstep.
A lady in Washington has recently
taken possession of an old mouse. TO
her great sorrow, says the post, she
found the place overrun with rats and
mice. Rats and mice of the wariest
and most suspicious kind, too. Traps
were set in profusion, and in vain.
She dared not use poison, for fear the
rodents would die in the walls. Her
kitchen was presided over by her old
nanny, a colored woman of ample
proportions and great age.
II don't know what l am to do,
Maum Becky, with these rats and
mice, ''said the lady in despair.
"What matter wild er catp"
'.But we have no cat. and before we
raise kitten large enough to catch
rats they will have eaten US out of
house and home"
What matter wild SEN Jim out er
alley, ketch strange cat? Plenty OF
cat in alley. Nobody keer bout one
cat?n
"But what is the use of talking such
nousence. Maum Becky? A strange cat
wouldn't stay in the house five minutes,
if jim should catch one.n
Miss Lizzie, Maum Beck's 'sprised
m 'shamed to year you talk 50. / Is
done raised you fun liz baby, n den
year you Tess such ign'ance? Not kip
strange cat in e house minute? You
don't know how kip strange cat in
house! Lemme tell you, an dom you
nebber forgit Fus' you catch de cat.
Den you TAX er OF boot lafg. m put
de cat head fus' dowd e boot laig.
Pull de Cat hin laigs froo de straps,
DIES SO he kyarn' use he claw. Den
you put cat haid uu'r 20 ahm, so, an
walk BACKYARD to the frs step OBJ
po'ch. Den TEX err kyarvin' knife err a
sissors m snip off end err cat tail. Den
TEX 20 finger n dig liz hole un'r step
m bury tip err tail in e hole. Fo' God,
dat cat nebber Leah er place SO lang
dat cat tail stay in e hole.
Even the simplest of our necessary
implements, which are such a matter
of course to us that it seems as if they
would be self-evident to any one, re-
ouired years OF experience and
thought to bring about their present
efficacy, says the Portland Transcript.
This fact is exemplifed in the devel-
opmcnt of the screw and the nail.
Forty years ago, as we are informed
by. an elderly carpenter, all screws
were blunt at the end, like bolt, and
for their entrance into the wood it was
as necessary to provide hole OF the
proper size and depth, as it is to dig
one in the ground for the entrance OF
a post Gimlets of as varied sizes as
the screws aided the screw-driver, and
were just as necessary. The .'gimlet-
pointed" screw, which has been in use
for the past forty years, was not even
thought of then, and so the carpen-
ters bored hole for every screw, till
some one happened to think of COM
bining the screw and the gimlet, to the
lasting benefit of builders. We read
of the wrought-iron nails OF our ances-
tors, which split the wood like a
wedge, and which required a previous
ly prepared hole as much as the blunt
screw. The square point of the present
nail must be placed in proper rela-
tons with the grain to prevent split
ting the wood; and it is only recently,
after all these years of building, that
nail has been perfected that won't
split anything. 1t is the smooth. round,
sharp-pointed, nail so extensively used
now in the making OF boxes, fruit
crates, ETC., the narrow edges Of which
it penetrates with impunity.