Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-08-09
MAN AND MOUSE TRAP.
Wreckage Made by an Exciting En-
counter Between Them in a
Dark Room.

Talk about your peculiar mishaps,'
said young man to q New. Orleans
Times-Democrat reporter, something
happened to our clearinghouse the
other night that 1 think Is entitled to
first money. One of our dodgers is a
very fat man, who has a Job as book
keeper in wholesale house near the
river. Well, he has room directly I'M
der mine, and lately we have all been
bothered more or less by mice. The
landlady declared war on them, and
for light artillery she bought lot
of small wire traps - those dome
shaped affairs with holes around the
top for the beasts 20 stick their heads
into.
1.-THE servant put one In each room,
and a few evenings ago, when she
was going around batting the lot, was
careless enough to leave the fat mans
standing on top of his dresser. He
happened to be out attending sing
ing society that night and didn't get
home until about one a. m. His room
was pitch dark, but he knew there
were some matches on the dresser,
and, moving cautiously across the
floor, he began paving around for the
box. At about the first plunge he
made he stuck his fat forefnger into
one of the apertures Of the mouse
trap, and the thing snapped on him
like the jaws of bulldog.
"Now, imagine IL you cam" con-
tinued the railroad clerk, show you
would feel yourself If you were prowl-
ing around in dark room and some
unknown monster suddenly nailed you
by the finger and hung on. 1 am free
to say 1 would probably have howled
just as loudly as the fat man did. He
supposed, of course, that the thing
that held him was alive, and when
he tried to knock it off his hand en-
countered the corpses of two mice
that had been caught in the other
holes before he came in. The touch
of their soft, furry bodies confirmed
the idea that it was q living creature,
and it was then, as he explained after
ward, that he tried to escape to the
hall, and got tangled up with the fur
,niture.
"How he came to demolish so many
different things In such short space
Of time is q mystery, but you know
how easy it is to bump into all the
articles in n dark room under the
most ordinary circumstances, and a
fat man with a mouse-trap hanging
to his finger would naturally be a
great deal more destructive. Any
how, 1t was that first below Of mortal
terror that awakened me, and the
next thing I heard was a succession
of frightful crashes mixed with the
noise of breaking glass, shutting feet,
torn cloth, falling furniture and ten
ply profanity. 1 could have sworn
that my neighbor was having a fight
with at least eight burglars, and,
needless to say, the whole house was
up in a moment. Of course nobody
was anxious to go in and get muir
dered while that awful row was in
progress, but presently 1t died out,
and when we pushed open the door we
found the bookkeeper sitting in the
middle Of the room, totally collapsed,
with the mouse-trap still hanging to
his finger and the floor Uttered with
The wreck Of all his belongings.
"a 6O-pound lyddite shell couldn't
have produced more picturesque
ruin. Ever since then q desperate ar
gument has been in progress as to
who Is responsible fer the damages
The landlady declares the fat man
will have to pas' for the smashed fur
niture, and he swears by the nine
gods he won't give up cent. On the
contrary, he wants remuneration for
his lacerated finger, the shock of his
nerves, and the suit of clothes ruined
in the battle. l wouldn't be surprised
if the case got into the courts with
the mouse-trap as Exhibit A.