Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-02-16
AB0UTCATs ANDRATS
A 1AtE FROM IOWA. WHICH IS TO
 HIVE 4 cAT FARM

DAAHAA1 h8ie AAs5At 2A NAAR AtESNAEO GADR G0A
 Beth.-A Project Whose End Is Catslsins.
 A cat factory is the latest Iowa scheme. Every little while strangeeru- mors come cut of the west, but of all the wild border it's Iowa sends the best. The Sun has had its eye on Iowa for a long time. Even with half m eyo one could sec that strange things were hap pening out there. In fact. four of these strange things happened along this way When New York saw the four Gherrys, it decided that there were stranger things in heaven and earth and Iowa than were dreamed of in it's philosophy. The cat factory scheme goes to confirm this belief.
 Clinton, according to report. is to be the home of the projected factory. Tho idea has net been entirely carried out, but it is ripe for execution, and the magnificent schemes of Colonel Sellers pale into insigniaoanoe beside the pos sibilities of this prairie project.
 Clinton is a beautiful town i'll the ex- treme eastern portion of the state. As far as can be learned, it has never borne i'll will or malice against anybody, con- sequently tho cat factory cannot be of the nature of a revenge. The Clinton people do not understand it. They have given bonuses to packing houses and bonuses to wagon factories and build ing site to the cracker man, who said he'd let the poor have all his broken crackers. But they never gave even en- eouragement to the cat factory.
 The cat factory didn ask for eneour- agement. All it wanted was a chance, and two enterprising men from Kansas have promised that. The simplicity of their scheme is ill itself stroke of genius. Here are tho details:
 h tho first place. they arc to have a number of acres on the outskirts of the town This farm, if you choose to call it that, is to be stocked with LOGO as- sorted cats. 4 separate portion of the place will he occupied by 5, GOO rats. The 5000 rats are to be fed gradually to tho 1000 cats. Meantime both cats and rats will increase ill numbers de- spite the fact that the cats are eating the rats. It is estimated that the number of cats will increase to 15, 900 during the first year and to 225, GOO during the sec ond year.
 Of course, if the rats increased no faster than the cats. the cats would soon eat up all the rats, and there would be trouble. But they don't give way to these little difficulties out in Iowa. The cats are to be raised for the skins, which are worth &1 each in the market When the cats are killed for their skins, their bodies are fed to the rats, which will fatten on their adversaries' bones. Thus fattened, they themselves will become more toothsome and nourishing for the cats, when it is the turn of the rats to be eaten.
 The beauty of this plan must be ap- parent. What are cats today become rats tomorrow, and what are rats tomorrow become cats next day, and so on round the circle of rats and cats until dooms- day--or the time when the Clinton peo. pie shall turn out and exterminate the whole insti5ution.
 But this isn't all. The cats become
 
 explained. Also, the cats become more cats and the rats become more rats with a persistent rapidity which makes one's brain reel. If the 1000 cats became 225, 900 ill two years, the question is, how many rats will they have from q beginning of 5,000, provided the rats increase five times faster than the cats. One must consider the fact, however, that the cats will eat more rats than the rats can eat cats This is important. Also that many of the rats, having been eaten by the cats, will therefore be in- corporated in the cat population, and will be assisting the eat total to the detriment of the rats. Of course, at the same time, some of the cats will have been eaten by the rats, and must there fore be subtracted from the cat pro- duoers and added to the rats.
 Now, there is another problem. If the cats ate nothing but rats, then the en- tire 5000 rats would be eaten by the LOGO cats inside of tho first week, and the story would be done moro quickly even than the famous tale of Solomon Grundy, which covered a period of seven days, not counting the obsequies which must have occurred the next week. There must be way out of this. Naturally enough, it is milky way. A third section of tho farm will be devoted to COWS The COWS, it ia to be hoped for tho success of the scheme, will give milk. Part of this milk will be fed to the cats. The rest will ba made into cheese for the rats. It is so easy to kill two birds with ono stone if you have tho right kind of birds and the right kind of stone.
 Here, then, is the project complete: First, the farm, which is to be sur rounded by 10 foot fence to prevent the escape of the capitalized stock of the company; second, the cows, which will furnish milk for tte cats and cheese for the rats: third and fodrth, for they are inseparable, or will be in the course of I1a