The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-28

| lreeu from rats IS not very cosby
| operation.
City rat catcllers lay their regular
| work out in routes for greater conven-
| fence in handling, and the places on
| these routes are visited as often as may
| be necessary to keep them free from
rats There are thAee or four profess
| sional rat catchers in the city, each en-
ploying a number of men.
Rats are caught with traps and with
longs the greater number with traps.
| Both cage traps, in which the rats are
| caught alive, and spring traps that kill
| them when caught, are used, the larger
number of the last described kind. Fer
| rets are also sometimes employed in rat
| catching.
The means adopted for catching the
| rats MAY depend on the place and cir
cumstances The rat catcher looks the
place over and determines on the way
in which to go about it. Perhaps he
stops up most of the holes and estab-
fishes what are practically runways
that lead the rats to his traps. There
may have been dozen traps in the
house and rats caught in none of them
! 1t might be that a trap would be set
right over a rat hole and that rat
would come up and crawl under 1T to
get into the hole, but keep out Of the
trap. Tt is not likely to be so with the
rat catchers traps. He knows enticing
bats, that makes them so attractive
that the rats cannot resist them, and
he catches rats when the amateur In
that line, the householder, fails. The
rat catcher varies the trap arrange
ments according to circumstances; and
uses the tongs in various places, per-
haps in kitchens, or in picking rats off
pipes or elevated places, or reaching
into recesses, and tongs might be used
in catching rats in stables
In a stable the bait would be scattered
in various places, where it would be
convenient to get at the rat with the
tongs when it was feeding, The feed,
scented with the enticing preparation,
Is put in the same places and at the
same hour for two or three nights in
succession. The bait is not In large
chunks, as of bread or cheese, that the
rats could pick up and carry off, but
it is perhaps oatmeal which it can pick
up only a grain at a time and which
it must stay there to cat. The pre-
paration put upon it Is so attractive
that it might induce a wild rat to take
the food from the rat catcher's hand
The lights are all turned down, and this
stable work is not done on moonlight
nights when moonlight coming in
through open doors or windows or
spaces might cast shadows that would
alarm the rats. The operator carries
oil 1o,o ,NdA ti,.rr
surface so fixed as to throw but
slender beam of light. When everything
is ready he throws this beam upon the
place where the rats are feeding to
locate them. There may be one, or
there may be more of them. The light
dazes the rats for a second or So and
the rat lifts up his head to look. In that
brief period the rat catcher gets in with
his tongs. II there is more than one
rat he sweeps the first one caught
around the other until he can reach for
it. He may have arranged ten places
in the stable and get rats in every one,
He will reach into manager with his
hand where there may be two or three
rats and sweep them together in such a
manner that he can grasp the bunch
by the tails. He lifts them up with a
swing that dazes them for a moment,
at the same time calling to keepr who
goes with him on such occasions, hold |
Ing the bag into which the live rats |
are tossed.
This bag has attached to it at the top !
a tape, not as a gathering string, for |
there wouldn't be time to close the bag |
in that way, but to hold on, by, held |
between the bag holders teeth, thus |
giving him both hands free with which
to open and close the mouth of the bag |
quickly. When the rat catcher calls,
and swings the rats around, the bag |
holder opens the mouth Of the bag and |
the rat catcher drops in the rats. They
recover almost instantly from their tenn
porary bewilderment, and the instant |
they strike the bottom of the bag. they
start to scramble up the sides to get |
out, but the bag holder closes the mouth |
and keeps it so till there is |
to open for another rat.
1t might be that working along with |
The tongs and lantern the rat catcher |
would come upon rats unexpectedly, or