The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-02-04
,GAIGHERS' WAYS
Man and Ferret in a Partner
ship of Slaughter.
WORK AT DEAD OF NIGHT
Houses So Rid Stunned for a
Rat Generation.
WORK AT DEAD OF NIGHT


Gle for him. The rat loves the water
de. He haunts the wharves and rocker
ie that line the mouth Of either river,
IN ! his occasional incursions into down.
toa n business offices and into the older
fene ments makes necessary an interTnit-
tent but vigorous warfare. 1t is not easy
to III / building Of his presence after he
has Z nee determined that it shall shelter
MS ii pusehold gods. The nearest sewer
IS his castle whence he issues after each
evbctid I. Poison and traps are to him
merely uncomfortable incidents. But he
has tive really dreaded enemies. One Of
them is the ferret, Of whom he is in fran
Tic fear. The other is the rat catcher.
The SAT catcher follows an occupation
well known in all the Rhine cities, but
not well known here. He is an uncanny
tort of It tlerson, and if he is to be be-
lieved the rats fear him as men fear
ghosts. He knows the master word that
makes their hearts to thump agains
their ribs, and their whiskers to stand
out stradgf 1t and their tails to CULVER with
PuperstitiolAs fear. The old legend of the
Piper of -Hamelin' is based on a rnediA
eval belief in the weird gifts Of certain
men that have not entirely disappeared
to this day. There are men in this city
who will gu hrantee that a house which
they have fr eed of rats will remain clear
buring an entire rat generation-about
five years. So long as the memory of the
oldest whiske red grandsire Will endure.
the evil little creatures will avoid that
louise. Stories Of terrible monster that
fell upon their parents at night and
are doubtless repeated to foolish young
rats. until they skip by the haunted
Hainscoting with little shrieks Of terror.
Like the owl and the bat, the New York
rat is a tenant of ruin. He loves the OBJ
Ecene darkness Of rotting wharves. the
endorsements of Old NEWSPAPER offices.
the garrets of decaying tenements the
cellars of sailors" lodging houses, the holds
of abandoned scows and canalboats. The
houses built upon made land in the lower
part Of the city must keep UP a conStant
= efensive warfare against him. 1t is prob
ii le that a Victor Hugo of the docks
cou Id write another sketch just as ex-
citiE as that chapter in LES Nfiser-
abIeA > in which Gavroche, the gamin-
philal lthropist, is attacked by rodents
while entertaining his tiny outcast
guests in the belly Of the plaster ele-
plant
Down where the immigrants are nous
ed the lrat multplies. After every snow
you via see his footprints in Battery
Park, an for a long time the bre adfng
tanks in che Aquarium had to be covered
with wire netting. Certain hungry and
powerful rats used to come up from the
tanks, single out their prey among the
tender minnt'ws.s dive for them and even
pursue them under water, swimming as
freely as a loon.
Several species Of rodents infest the
leGges of Central Park The curious OBJ
server who sits quietly on any warm day
by the side of the lake will note them
swimming near the waters edge by the
dozens and sometimes he will see them
climbing out on the bushes and lower
branches overhanging the water The
writer hats seen four perched on a single
cigar box that a breeze was ferrying
across the. lake. Among the refuse that
floats on the water they get their food.
and when -he ducks and geese hide their
nests in the spring among the weeds the
rats are antong the first TO find them.
The clerks who work late in the older
buildings Of Wall street ten stories of big
gray rats. nearly the size Of cats. that
come out and prowi around the rooms.
Their visitors have disoWeting way of
counting observation and refusing to run
when approached. They are credited with
ahe destruction of thousands Of dollars
worth of stationery. 1t has taken an Of
fensive program of poison and traps to
keep them off, and hundreds Of dollars
have been spent in employing profession
~ rat catchers. There is a sewer under
Cherry street that is fairly alive with
them. and dissolute characters have been
found in the houses nearby dead and
partlv eaten by them. The last time
any spectator entered the abandoned IN
foreground railroad, built under Broad
way and the City Hall Park nearly a
generation ago. it was found tenanted
with huge gray and very hungry-looking
rats. some Of the country houses along
the Sound and the Hudson River have
had trouble with these nocturnal visitors
More than sne building here has been
burned as the result Of the cruel fun of
degenerate boys. who have soaked a cap
trred rodent with kerosene and set fire
10 il. and sometimes they have paid for
their amusement with prison sentence.
II has been said that the two dreaded
enemies of these creatures are the fer
ret and the rat catcher. But in a sense
the TWO are one, for the ferret is merely
Ehe inexorable instrument in the hands
OF the man They work together. in the
darkness silently. There is something alb
IN ho in, cod
shor1-legged. so weak that it can run
only short distances, so susceptible TO
cold that Il must be carried in a warm
bag. susceptible 10 drowsiness that there
is always danger il Win lie down and fall
asleep in rat hole after it has chased
out its occupant, il Is yet the incarna-
zion Of vindictveness. Il is near-sizht-
ed AID satanic little fate. from the rat
standpoint. and the moment It slips into
one end of a hole out pops the rightful
occupant at the other, sometimes with
the ferret's teeth in his neck. sometimes
with the ferret clutching his hind leg
Occasionally il happens that the little
Bloodhound runs into a whole nest OF
rats. and they fall TO and kill him in
rage Of terror.
So much for his lieutenant The rat
catcher himself is as much a creature OF
the night as his prey Sometimes there
IS more than a fancied resemblance be-
tween him and his quarry, One old fell
sorv who died a year or so ago used to
suggest a rat inevitably to his patrons
The same narrow. fugitive eyes. pointed
nsse. thin wlIiskers and gray thatch Of
hair were observed and his manners were