The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-07-24
CAPTURING RODENTS.
RAT CATCHING AS A CRAFT HAS UN-
DERGONE CHANGES.

Pests at Five Cents Head-His Trade q
Profitable One-Some of the Old Methods
of Getting Rid of the Pesky varmints.
There are few St. Louisans who know
that rat catching is an established bust
ness in this city. And fewer know that
considerable ingenuity enters into an
adept practice Of the craft. Venerable
housewives recall how, a generation
ago, there were some queer characters
who contracted to rid places of the TO-
dent pests by all manner of means, from
ordinary legerdemain to the extraordi-
nary method of the Pied Piper of Hame-
lin. There were others, too, who hired
out intelligent ferrets to exterminate
rats. But the advance of civilization
has had its effect on the science of rat
catching, and even in that branch of in
dustry mechanical contrivances have
supplanted manual work
@. P. Johnson is probably the leading
rat catcher of st. Louis. His traps are
not cheap trifles, and there are many
persons who hire him to set the con-
trivances in their places, paying cents
for each of the little pests that is cap
tured. The largest restaurants afford
johnson considerable work. But the
hotels, which would naturally be ex-
pected to offer favorable field for
Johnson's work, do not figure as among
his good patrons. He says that the rat
is one of the most cautious of animals,
and that the meddlesomeness of hostelry
attaches prevents successful trap setting
in hotels. One big down town establish
ment was rid of SO rats in one night.
Both johnson and Henry Helm attend
to the formers traps. They make daily
rounds, setting the contrivances or dis
posing of the captives. When a land
lord wishes his place rid of rats, he in
forms johnson of that portion of the
house where the little animals do most
of their foraging
For the first night or two the trap is
set there in such manner that the rats
can nibble the bait and afterward es-
cape On the day that Johnson finds all
the cheese and crackers in the boxlike
continuance have been devoured during
the night he attaches an auxiliary trap,
into which the captive rats are to be
forced out of the view of prospective
prisoners. Thus fully 100 rats can be
caught in one trap in one night.
Johnson says that he doesn't contract
to entirely rid place of rats. He thinks
he knows as much about the business
as any one else" and says that when
the rodents have firmly established
themselves in house it is almost i'm
possible to drive them out. A ferret, he
says, might destroy the nest and the
trap catch all the rats in the house, but
if the locality is particularly favorable
for rodent light neighboring pests are
most likely to move into the place.
"Times are changed" said an old
timer. II remember when man had
to work a sight harder than he does
now before he'd get several pieces of sill
yer for "a hours rat catching. In those
days these newfangled traps weren't
known.
"There used to be a fellow living
down on the levee that knew more about
rats than jockey knows about race
horses. He had a partner, and both Of
them worked all kinds of schemes on the
little creatures. These two men had a
way of spreading bait on cellar floor
and then sneaking in on rubber boots.
One of them carried sack and queer
pair of tongs. The other had bulls
eye lantern with sliding panel
They'd sit in the dark as quiet as a
graveyard until the rats commenced
fighting and quarreling or until they
knew the place was full of the varmints.
'Then the lantern would be turned
on suddenly, and the rats, who are as
afraid of light as I am of ghosts, would
stand stock still. The man with the
tongs-and he was quicker than creased
lightning would pick up the pests and
fire them into the sack before the little
things knew what was up. Sometimes
they'd bag as many as 40 at a crack,
but at other times the rats would be-
come accustomed to the light and scam
per away before 20 of their comrades
had been nabbed."
But the science of rat catching has
fewer opponents than has the art of rat
killing Housekeepers are not generally
anxious to have the little animals about
them, and hence they pay more attention
to the ways of exercising the pests than
they do to means of capturing them.
In addition to the time worn scheme
of poisoned bait, there are number Of
unique plans that are operated from
time to time by landlords who have lost
patience with the domestic marauders
An ingenious individual some time ago
devised plan of painting a captive rat
with phosphorescent preparation and
then turning it loose. The released rat
would return to its nest, and there its
effulgent coat would brighten the other
rats out of all their instincts save that
of fear.
There would be pellmell fight, and
as rats go in droves the painted rodent
would run in their midst, increasing
their fright and fastening their flight.
Some one suggested that the little ami
mails would either run themselves to
death or continue their chase until
dawn, when, in the sunlight, the phos-
phorus would lose it's brilliance Even
in the latter event the little animals