The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-11
THE CAT ABOUT TOWN.

opssrNdlioHS on the HdDltS or LOnQOn
 Toms and Tabbies.
 A writer in the Daily Mail gives some notes from a forthcoming book to be entitled ''The Cat and the City" pur- porting to give an approximate census of the London cats, and the estimate is four hundred thousand, of which half are unattached" and live large ly on refuse. because London is the most wasteful city in the world" As London is also one of the cleanest cit ies in the world, it is very doubtful if the waste food comes much in the way of the unattached London cat, which, like other metropolitan paupers. levies handsome contributions on kind heart ed people, whose doorsteps and areas it besets, and also catches numbers of pigeons, sparrows, rats and mice, the three last of which do live on London refuse, which the cat eats in the more convenient form of cold sparrow or mouse. Evidence qoted by the writer shows that this is so, for he states that in most parts of London the rats have been driven underground into the sewers by the warfare of the cats. He also holds that the latter are some what changing in character, are los- ing their dislike of water and wet, and prefer to be out in the rain.
 We rather doubt these conclusions, and believe that If the London cat diff fers at all from his country cousin it is in selecting different hours for his sport and amusement. The country cat is more or less lively all day and hunts regularly in the evening. The London cat is sleepy and quiet all day, because circumstances make him a very early riser, or at any rate prevent him having his morning sleep. The explanation of the languor and ennui of the London cat is to be found in the fact that long before he appears at the breakfast table with a jaded appetite and general air of aloofness from the world and it's pleasures he has had long mornings sport, often in delight full society and then breakfasted com fortably in the kitchen. The scenes of these early morning hunts are various, and the hour during half the year is UHe DtlOIc tNen IllS tctliiCSI ol Cehiiy risers are about.
 In winter the London cats often seek their sport under cover. Tn one dis trict near very large and famous brewery the sporting cats go regularly as soon as the brewery gates are open to hunt rats in the brewery stores" This is capital fun, as there are hun dreds of barrels, either stored or working" with little patches of yeasty froth oozing from the bungholes and plenty of dropped corn and
 grains" in the neighborhood to at- tract all the rats from elsewhere. Un- der and among these barrels they may
 be hunted with success for an hour or
 more. Besides the brewery rats, which are said to drink beer when they can get it, there are ''temperance" rats, which live by the river, and, so far as we know. only drink water. These form the grand objects of sum- mer sport to all London cats in range of the Thames, from the docks in the east to Chiswick in the west, and all
 along the old muddy foreshore on the
 Surrey side, where no embankment in tervenes to spoil sport. We have nev
 CT heard of an instance of London cats catching fish by the river, probably be- cause until very recently there have been no fish to catch. But the keen ! ness of the cats for this riverside hunt | ing by the tidal Thames is such that they often return covered and clotted with mud from the foreshore, where | they have either fallen in from the | wharves or have pursued 8 rat escap- | ing across the leavings of the river ebb.
 In summer mornings, from four to about five, London ceases for the mo- ment to belong to the world of men, | and for the moment is given up to the | sole enjoyment of the London birds and | the London cats. At this really be- witching hour, for the town is quite beautiful then, the cats may be seen as at no other time, monarchs of all they survey-rerum domini, masters of the | town. Then it may be seen that it is not for nothing that the race have for generations maintained their indepen- | dence and asserted their rights to | roam. For at that hour all the dogs | are shut up; all the boys, and grown up | people. too, are asleep. There is not | even milkman about, or an amalga-
 mated engineer going to his before l breakfast work. The city is theirs.