The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1896-06-26
A TERROR TO RATS.
An Odd Character of the Pacific
Coast
Like the Pied Piper of HameIIn He
Wields q Strange Influence Over
the Rodents-HIs Peculiar
business,

Piper of Hamelin has been visiting the
seaports of the Pacific coast lately.
driving or drawing hordeS of rats from
the ships at the wharves and occasion
ely from the warehouses and bio
hotels. He seems to have Il strange
influence over rats and readily -tamcS
and makes pets of strange rats. He is
not a ratcatcher. for, while there Is no
doubt of the thoroughness with which
he rids a ship or house of rats, he does
not catch them, nor does he care what
becomes of them. He only undertakes
to drive them away. More than this.
he claims to be able to bring the rats
back again, and ii. is said he has done
this in two or three instances where
ships captain has played him false.
and, being rid of the rats, has failed to
live up to his bargain with the rat
Charmer.
He is, or has been, a seafaring man.
Ills name is Joe Peoples, though he is
known along the wharves as Rough-on-
Rats. Usually he has his pockets full
of rats-not pets of long acquaintance.
but ordinary rats which he has caught
recently. and which he keeps to use in
his peculiar business. He SAYS there is
Ao EsAlS- anu AAaA
they will not bite if properly handled.
but either he exercises some strange
power over the animals, or else he has
learned a secret of handling them that
is not likely to become common prop
erty. 1t is the same with 4 rat as with
a nettle, he says. If you pick up rat
as though not afraid of IL the animal
will not bite; and if you place, it back
on the ground and let it run away of
it's own accord il Will be equally harm
less. But if, having gone so far as to
get hold of a rat, you place il on the
floor and draw your hand away sharply.
the rat Will, likely as not. take
piece Of your hand away with it. At
any rate, this is part of Mr.. Peoples
peculiar theories.
How he drives out the rats he is will
ing to explain in part, but the main
secret he naturally reserves. He selects
a lively old rat, ties little bell, like a
sleigh bell, with wire around its neck.
paints its back with phosphorus. then
drenches it in some liquid not divulged,
and turns it loose The rat runs
through all its accustomed haunts, bUs
all it's late comrades run ahead of it,
They don't like its blazing back and its
alarm bell. But mere than anything
else, Mr.. Pc ppleS says, they don't like
the smell it brings with him.
Mr.. Peoples doctored rats smell like
n whole cageful of ferrets- Rats par
ticularly dislike ferrets, and never stop
to investigate when there is the slight
est suggestion of one being near. Or
dinary rat catdhers corrobOrate Mr..
Peoples in this. The consequence Is.
and it is a consequence in fact as well
as in logic, that the doctored rat drives
every other rat before ii, and where
the doctored rat has once been no rat
will venture afterward while the smell
lasts, and Mr.. Peoples guarantees the
smell for one year. The unfortunate
rat with the bell, its illuminated back,
and it's terrible smell, seeks its old
friends in every hole and corner, and
wherever it goes it is the last rat that
will GO there in a year. Mr.. Peoples
says he has frequently known rats to
Jump overheard from a ship in their
efforts to escape from a doctored rat,
and many witnesses bear him out in
this statement. There is no question
of his success in entirely clearing n
number of ships and warehouses at
IT oN
send and other ports on the coast which
were formerly overrun with rats
For his claim that he can bring back
the rats there seems to be only Mr..
Peoples word. He names two or three
ships plying up and down the coast
on which he had played his second trick.
The captains told him, after the rats
had all left their ships. that they
guessed he hadn't done much toward it
and offered to compromise. Mr. Peo-
piles says he just doctored half a dozen
rats with a different kind of medicine
and set them free on these ships, and
scattered some of the same kind of
stuff about the holds, and he AYERS that
in a little while there will be four times
as many rats on the ships as formerly.
and he will charge four times as much
to charm them away--N. V Sun.