Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-03-04
cars on THE ELEVATED.
with More Especial Reference to
Those ut south Ferry.

cats are rarely seen about the stations
OF the elevated road. They are. In fact,
seldom kept there; but there Is no rule
OF the company against keeping them.
and they might even be needed. for the
same use as elsewhere. TO drive away
rats. AT one point Oh the elevated road
cats have been kept for years, at the
Offices Of the superintendent Of the road,
at South Ferry. The cat kept here.
however, Is never seen by the passengers
on the road. for the Offices are another
night upstairs over the station. How the
rats get there nobody knows-whether
they crawl up the pipes or 20 up the
stairs-but they get there, and they are
the Kind that might be expected to be
found at that locality. big wharf rats
active and enterDrising and fearless.
On one occasion a man sitting az work
IN the Office, feeling a weight on his leg
and hearing a scratching on his trousers,
looked down and saw "A rat walking up
his leg.
Inc partiality Of rats for paste Is well
known. one night some years ago. in
their eagerness to get at the paste in
the building, the rats gnawed the backs
or i've account-books here. After that
me Office provided itself with a cat, and
WIN Two intervals of a few months
each II has had cat ever since.
The first one, a black cat, stayed four
years and kept the Offices pretty free
Of rats. Then one night II disappeared and
never came back, and nobody knew what
became OF H. 1t is possible that battalions
or rats gathered that night and stormed
the cats quarters and carried the black
cat off and drowned IL IN the harbor
Tor revenge. but that seemed scarcely
likely, for there are people about the
station and the superintendent offices
day and night, and rats advancing from
any point In large numbers would proba-
bly nave been seen. 1t seems more likely
that the black cat got lost. or thought
that four years was long enough to stay
in one place and so just went away on
its own account; and Il seems all the
more probable that IL went I'm some such
way as this, because some months after
its departure the rats remained more or
less shy Of the place, the mere recollection
OF the black cats presence apparently
inspiring them with sufficient terror to
Keep them away: but after that the rats
became bold again and came back. and
then the office again provided itself with
a cat, two Of them, I'm fact but they
were only little more than kittens.
The new cats, or kittens. were named
Tom and Jerry People are coming and
going on business here all the time.
brought in one of them got stepped on
and was so badly hurt that il didn't
live long afterwards. The other one grew
up to be a credit to it's race, and for about
two years 1t kept the Offices tolerably
free from rats Then one of the men in
the Office took the cat over to Jersey
where, it is said, there is now and then
rat. As was the case after the departure
of the original black cat so after the
departure Of this cat the rats stayed away
for awhile. and then, as before. they
began to come back, and the office got
a cat-the one which b has now. This
cat was provided by Messenger James
w. Jones who had raised it from a kitten.
1t is now about four years old, and is
called Mike
Mike is a black and white cat Of great
size. He has now been installed here for
about.a year He has performed his part
Of the contract we'll and in return is well
fed and cared for.