Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-03-10
AND RATS
A TALE FROM IOWA, WHICH IS TO
 HAVE A CAT FARM.

There Will Be Rats to Feed the Cats and
 Cats to Fatten the Rats and Cows to
 Supply the Rest of the Needed Food For
 Both--A Project Whose End Is CatsIxins.
 A cat factory is the latest Iowa scheme. Every little while strange ru- mors come out of the west, but of all the wild border it's Iowa sends the best. The Sun has had its eye on Iowa for Q long time. Even with half an eye one could see 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 Cherrys, 1t decided that there were stranger things in heaven and earth and Iowa than were dreamed of in its philosophy. The cat factory scheme goes to confirm this belief
 Clinton, according to report, is to be the homo of the projected factory. The idea has not been entirely carried out, but 1t is ripe for execution, and the magnificent schemes of Colonel Sellers pale into ipsignifoanoe beside the pos abilities of this prairie project.
 Clinton is beautiful town in the ex- treme eastern portion of the state. As far as can be learned, it has never borne ill will or malice against anybody, con- sequently the 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 a 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. oouragement to the cat factory.
 The cat factory didn't ask for encour. agement. All it wanted was a chance, and two enterprising men from Kansas have promised that. The simplicity of their scheme is in itself stroke of genius Here are the details;
 h tho first place, they are to have a number of acres on the outskirts of the town This farm, if you choose to call l it that, is to be stocked with 1000 as sorted cats. A separate portion of the ] plaee will be occupied by 5, 900 rats The 5000 ists are to be fed gradually l to the 1, ,00O cats. Meantime both cats and rats will increase in numbers de- l spite the fact that the cats are eating the rats. It is estimated thab the number of cats will increase to 1000 during the first year and to a25, 900 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 arc to be raised for the skins, which are worth $1 each ill the market. When the cats are killed for their skins their bodies arc fed to the rats, which will fatten on their adversaries' bones Thus 1 fattened, they themselves will become more toothsome and nourishing for the cats, when it is the turn of the rats to neo n6o eaten.
 The beauty of this plan must be ap. parent. What arecats 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.
 
 whole institution.
 But this isn't all The cats become rats and the rats become cats, as before 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 a beginning of 5000, provided the rats increase five times faster than the cats. One must consider the fact, however, that tho 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 cat total to the detriment of the rats. Of course, at Ghe 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 5, 900 rats would be eaten by the 1000 cats inside of the first week, and the story would be done more quickly even than the famous tale of Solomon Grundy. which covered period of seven days, not counting the obsequies which must have occurred the next week. There must be way out of this. Naturally enough, 1t is milky way. A third section of the farm will be devoted to COWS Tho COWS, it is to be hoped for the success of the scheme, will give milk. Part of this milk will be fed to the cats Tho rest will be made into cheese for the rats. It is so easy to kill two birds with one stone if you have the right kind of birds and the right kind of stone
 Here, then, is the project completes; 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 kc cho f.ar