Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-03-29
TALES TOLD BY ritz CAPTAIN
yERACIOUs STORIES spun BY A VET
ERAN POLICE OFFICER.
Captain Branham Tells the Prize Rat
Story of the Year-The oub
Caused by the Rodents in
the Old Station.

There are a few nights in the course of
a month when the North end characters
behave themselves sufficiently between mid
night ard morning to escape arrest at the
hands of the police. On such occasions
Central police station becomes as quiet as
through the station with uncanny
distinctness. A rat occasionally scampers
across the floor, startling the jailer from a
nap in his chair, and now and then the
oackle of geese floats into the station from
the city market to add realism to an I'M
usual interval of Countrywide stiffness. The
very atmosphere seems conducive to a rem
iniscent frame of mind on account of its
extreme contrast to the usual turbulent up
roar about police headquarters.
AT such times, in order to keep awake.
the captain. the police surgeon, and the
reporters who are ION watch grow ia
miliar as they pull their chairs into a circle
and the smoke from their pipes blends be-
fore reaching the high ceiling. Usually the
conversation begins in a discussion of some
of the arrests or outbreaks of lawleSsnesS
that tn have ner Occurred RI ab during the day y n mhen
circles lengthens out into a half hour, the
captains g~ood-nature increases to that
point where he grows reminiscent and the
time passes rapidly under the Inspiration
of a well told story. Sometimes it is the
story of some atrociouS crime in
captain resurrects and tells with all its
bloodcurdling details. At other times 1t
is an experience he had while in the ter
ritory'' before there was a railroad there:
an incident that occurred on the Mississippi
river before the war, a snake story which
the veteran captain of the police tells with
so much gusto that everyone feels nervous
and creepy"
Friday morning, early. was such a time.
Captain John Branham began telling what
he thought about the recent highway rob
berries. The station was as quiet as q
church, when a rat scampered across the
floor: ~,
place and what they find to attract them
after they get here, amt it," he said, sud
denly breaking of one Of his remarks.
But you ought to have been here when
the old station was here and the city mar,
ket was a frame building if you wanted
used to run from the old market house over
here to the station in droves every night.
The ceiiIooms were on the surface ,fr Oh line Inc
are now, you know. Well. sir. these rats
used to run through the bars into the cell
rooms and eat the scraps of meat and
used to have lots of sport on such nights
as this with those rats. We would wait
until about two dozen got into the cell
and go after them with sticks. That was
lots Of sport, let me tell you: But it made
night. there would be just as many back
again the next night.
".Where would they all come from?'
why, ITOH1 the OlQ UldTkelHOuSc. III llOUIS
in the old building had rotted out a half
dozen times and each time the new floor
ing was put in right on top of the old SO
a Sh regu ihs 1 Eden got Why Why DC! Do You y5aci know now that
when. they tore that old building down.
everybody in the North end was there
t killing rat rats t ana nearly a6H h 1aok, the rest re- o. o. the
fun? Oh. I tell you 1t was a sight-I don't
stretch it a bit when 1 say they. had to
haul the dead rats ava in a big coal
wagon Yes the wagon was full too
The pipes were refilled and after everyone
had exhausted his supply of rat stories,
experiences in trying to get rid Of rats:
Twelfth street not long ago" he said.
having more fun than a cage of monkeys.
1 stopped to look on. They had found a
place where the floor had sunk about half
spot where the rats tails always came
through when they made a turn in their
R %eTe cutting mah e0 Sr the t e hae Of alt a the 1 rats
that went along. I saw about a dozen tails
there when I watched the fun. and the
that kind of sport every evening for a
month. Now, to prove my theory that
every rat leaves the place where he gets
badly hurt; no one about u that Il if, feed store
one in a trap. And there were lots Of
rats caught every day. too.
about twenty years ago there was an
OLD fellow who lived down in what was
called 'Hell's Half Acre down in the
West bottoms. He had been overrun with
rats until he was pretty nearly distracted
with the pests. He had tried poison and
traps. but they didn't do any good. Fin
ally he caught one in a trap and he con-
cluded that he would give all the rats
never would come back. He was deter
mined to get rid of the rats and he thought
he had at last struck on the right track.
He saturated the rat he had caught with
coal oil. set him on fire and turned him
loose. The rat ran under the house and
1t burned down in about ten minutes. But
he got rid of the rats"