River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1898-09-08
EXPERT RAT CATCHERS.
They Depend Principally on Dogs
Ferrets and Charms for Sue
cess in Their Work.

There are about 100 expert rat catch
ers in New York. Some of them are
employed by firms making a speciality
of the work; others travel around on
their own esponsibility, undertaking
for a consideration to clear buildings
of rats, no matter how long they have
made them their strongholds. The
itinerant rat catcher, as a rule, pro-
fesscs to have some occult power by
which he can charm the mischievous ro-
dents from their holes as the Pied Piper
of Hamelin charmed the rats away from
that city and lured them to their doom.
The itinerant rat catcher is generally
a naturalized Englishman, who claims
to have brought his secret from Lon
don, where rat catching is more of q
trade than it is here. Though his pow
ers are exaggerated, there is some col
or to his claims, just as there are au-
thenticated cases of rats attacking
babes in their cribs and sucking the
blood of adults when they are asleep.
The rat-catching firms are skeptical
about the alleged occult powers of the
travelling operators, and claim that
skill, In conjunction with the proper
appliances, is all the power a rat
catcher possesses. A member of the
firm of Adolph Isaacsen & Co, who have
kept a rat-catching establishment at
No. SO Fulton street for many years,
said in talking of the trade:
1--WE depend on the skill of our men
and the use of ferrets, terriers and
traps TO clear away rats. There may be,
as some people claim, certain kind of
oil by which men can attract rats from
their holes by amounting themselves
with it, but / never knew of a case of
rats being charmed by such means. l
am satisfied with the ordinary meth
DDS. combined with skill and knowledge
of the habits of the rats. We keep a
number of expert men and clear build
ings of rats by contract. Our principal
reliance is on ferrets and dogs special
ly trained.
"The dogs and the ferrets hunt by
scent. The ferrets are slower in tracing
the nest of rats than dogs, and that is
where the usefulness of a trained dog
comes in, The dog points when he
reaches the proper rat hole, standing
rigid when he comes to the place, with
his tail sticking out, and not uttering
sound. The trained ferret then is
let into the hole and does the rest.
There is nothing rats fear as much as
ferrets The ferret is the rats nat
ural enemy. and rats are paralyzed with
fear when a ferret appears. The fer
ret goes about like lightning, tearing
the windpipe of every rat, and will not
leave the hole until every rat is killed.
Sometimes it is necessary to use traps.
Poison is seldom used, and an expert
rat catcher alone knows how to set
traps a lat when caught by the leg
will sometimes gnaw the limb off and
escape Expert rat catchers earn from
SIS TO SIS week. Most of them are
single men,"
A farmer who employed an itinerant
rat catcher TO clear his barn and hay
ricks of rats said to the reporter that
undoubtedly there was something in
the claims of such men that they had
a peculiar oil which attracted rats. The
rats came out in dozens when this par
ticuar rat catcher sprinkled himself
with a liquid with a pungent odor from
a bottle, and were caught by him and
put in bag. lie appeared to be able
to handle the rats with impunity.
though rats will bite when cornered,
and their bite is often poisonous. He
carried the bag of squirming rodents
away with Hmm Y. Journal