The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-05-21
A VERITABLE PIED PIPER.
The Strange Power of an odd Charactci
Over Rats.

The Strange Power of an Odd Character
Over Rats.
A queer counterpart of the Pied
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 big
hotels. He seems to have strange
influence over rats and readily tames
and makes pets of strange rats. He is
not ratcatcher, for, while there is no
doubt of the thoroughneSs with which
he ribs 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 it 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.
| His name is Joe Peoples, though he is
known along the wharves as Rough-on-
/ I
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
no art about handling rats, and that
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 a rat as with
a nettle. he says. If you pick up a rat
as though not afraid of it the animal
will not bite; and if you place it back
on the ground and let it run away of
it's own accord it will be equally harm
less. But if, having gone so far as to
get hold of rat, you place it on the
floor and draw your hand away sharply,
the rat will, as likely as not, take a
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, but
all it's late comrades run ahead Of it.
They don't like its blazing back and its
alarm bell. But more than anything
else, Mr.. Peoples says, they don't like
the smell it brings with him.
Mr.. Peoples doctored rats smell like
. 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
binary 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 it, and where
the doctored rat has once been no raj
will venture afterward while the smell
lasts, and Mr.. Peoples guarantees the
smell for i 3fpfn cYe, It's eliminated back
and its 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 year. Mr.. Peoples
says he has frequently known rats to
jump overheard from a ship in their
efforts to escape from doctored rat.
and many witnesses bear him out in
this statement. There is no question
OF his success in entirely clearing a
number of ships and warehouses at
Seattle, Tacoma. Portland, Port Town
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-
pies says he just doctored half 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 little while there will be four times
as many rats on The ships as formerly,
and he will charge four times as much