The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-08-20
CAT CITIZENS IN FRISCO
IMPORTANT ADJUNCT TO BUSINESS IN
THE GREAT COAST CITY.
Fclines That Have distinguished
Themselves N Rat Hunters
One Highlander Tabby.
San Francisco Chronicle.

Few animals in San Francisco render such
valuable service to man or are so indispen-
sable to the needs of commerce as the
domestic cat. To merchants they are busi-
Eess cats In the strictest sense of the term,
performing a distinct Office in the economy
of trade. and they perform their tasks for
the most meager compensation, for when
you have given them their saucers of milk,
their bits of meat and a kind word or a
gentle stroke, what more can you do for a
cat? Pity 1t Is that the kind word and
caressinS touch should sometimes be denied
them.
The two most cunning and memorable en-
emies that follow civilized man are the rat
and the mouse Their ravages are confined
to no special branches of trade, for when
there is naught else to attract their appetite
they have been known to fatten on checks
and notes and ledgers and important letters.
Every seaport is afflicted with rats, for they
come ashore from the ships that tie up at
wharves. One active rodent can easily. in
many wholesale houses, work more damage
in a single night than the profits of the en-
tire sales of a day can cover. In other
great cities the professional rat catcher with
his ferrets or poisons Of various sorts is
often relied upon for the suppression of
these pests, but San Francisco merchants
place almost exclusive dependence upon
cats. Five years ago a leading firm Of
wholesale grocers was persuaded to dispense
with cats and to hire a man who contracted
TO rid their establishment Of vermin with a
remarkably appetizing rat poison. but with
In one month they were so overrun with
rats and mice that they fastened to restock
tne establishment with cats, and they are
to-day the feline'S most ardent champions.
"A large proportion of downtown provi-
sion merchants and dairymen frankly de-
care tnat were 1t not for cats they would be
compelled to give up business. The white
cat which adorns a drug store at the corner
OF stockton and O'Farrell streets tips the
scales at twenty pounds. He has an incura-
pie antipathy toward the whole dog tribe.
Let anyone come peaceably along accom-
panied by a canine of any sort, be he ever
SO ferocious, there is a sudden scramble
ana rush and something big and white and
fluffy descends like a whirlwind on the dog
something armed with keen long claws that
know Just how to strike at canine eyes;
something that travels like a cannon BALI
ana what can a poor dog do under such cir
eumstanees but run for his very life? His
from a travelling ball of cotton batting into
a very stately. dignifed cat, and, stepping
high, returns to his former post.
WHIP ANY DOG IN TOWN.
There are several other feline dog-fght-
ers in town. One of the most notable of
thCSC Il OldCh DIS llh, a sleek klIly VINO
keeps a commission house free from rats
and mice at the corner Of Sansome and Clay
streets. Her owners back her to whip any
dog in San Francisco, n she is tenderly
cared for and fed by them. fish being her ia
vorite dainty. Another Of these Is a hand
some tiger gray belonging to a firm engaged
in the lime business at lower Sacramento
street. The animal first saw the light on
the day when FitZsimmons whipped Cor
Dett. and was christened after the former.
| Inc champion cat farm of the city Is
a fruit commission house on the west side
OF Sansome street, near Clay. This is a
firm Of cat converts. which a few years ago
held the little animals in light esteem, but
the establishment becoming overrun by rats,
the firm was forced to call in feline aid.
They now proudly own to the possession of
six grown cats and twelve kittens. Among
the kittens Is one Of a rare type, a Maltese
with tabby stripes running through the
blue.
The next neighbor to this cat elysium,
a prominent importer of tropical fruits and
a manufacturer, divides the responsibility of
hunting vermin between four bull terriers
and six cats. He places his main reliance
On the latter.
The strangest cat in the city is found
Washington street, between Drumm and
East. Here there is a small white cat,
somewhat furnished by her environment.
kittens. one of which had blue eyes and
the other a blue and a yellow eye. The
first was given 10 Captain Wolf, of the Yin
fandei, and is believed now TO be at his
home, near Napa. The second one is in the
grocery and is remarkable in appearance.
for the blue eye has not the opaGueness or
liant as crystal. shading from sky blue to
mazarine. In the grocery and saloon on
is another enormous white cat, IN old fellow
of evil disposition, whom few can approach
with impunity.
CAT HAD APPENDICITIS.
Maltese cats are in large demand among
business houses, not only because of their
beauty, but because they have proved them
selves to be fine hunters. One of the hand
soonest of these is Tom. a magnificent fell
low belonging to a wholesale grocer on
lower California street, or, perhaps, 1t would
be more correct to say that the cat owns
the establishment. He spends his nights in
useful labor, and is sometimes for a con-
siderable period found regularly each morn
ing with a big dead rat by his side, for, like
most Of the genuinely capable of his kind,
he disdains to eat his game. During the
nicely finished mail tray on the office desk,
and when the weather Is cool a big nickel
lamp standing beside the tray is kept burn
ing for his especial benefit. A ft Of indiges-
ton very nearly carried him off one day,
and II became necessary to perform a sur
gf ;fe H 1p easmed &c 70 k SaWe t 5ne f nope Hst IelIow 5 ;
surgeons lancet was .unsheathed for his
good and bore the pain like a Stole and
without resistance.
Vieing with Tom in beauty and intelli.
gence and his almost exact counterpart in
size and appearance, is Joe, a splendid
Maltese of Petaluma birth, belonging to a
wholesale boot and shoe house on the corr
ner of Second and Stevenson streets. Eyes
of amber, a coat of silky blue-gray, sinewy
frame and leonine rather than tigerish face
Joe is a magnificent specimen of cathood
He not only answers to his name, but un-
derstands and will obey simple directions
issued by his master, jumping on desk OIL
chair at his bidding or playing with a cord
strung across the entrance in the Office rail
An instance OF cat devotion of an extraor-
binary sort is found in a wholesale daily es'
Establishment on the east side of Front street
near California. Here is a wee motherless
gray kitten, so small that IL can sit COM
fortably on one hand. In the store are five
grown catS-common cats or no pedigree
toms and Tables, and this elder band has
orphan. They watch it vigilantly, seeming
particularly apprehensive lest 1t stray oul
upon the street, and whenever one of them
perceives HIM too near the open doors the
older fellow walks over to the kitten, picks
1t UP I'm his mouth and gravely carries II
back and deposits it in the rear Of the
store.
HAS BROAD TIGER STRIPES.
The most exquisitely colored cat in the
city is probably the property Of a Front
street wholesale grocer, and is a Maltese,
with broad tiger stripes and patches under
the blue She has an interesting little fam.