The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-14

Scarcity of Feline Animal Formerly
SO Plentiful in Chicago.

has sprung up in Chicago; new form OF |
labor organization has suddenly come into !
existence This time 4 is the mice and !
rats and cats OF Chicago which have
agreed to make terms with each other, 10 !
divide profits and the pleasant things of
life, it were. Perhaps the long-con- |
tiuued talk and excitement concerning the !
thousand years of peace" so widely pre-
dlcted as due to commence with the clos
ing year of the nineteenth century has al !
tected these longtime enemies at last; II
may be hat they wish TO show that the
rat and the cat may lie peacefully down
together in this enlightened age Of modern
Improvements and universal progress even
if the British Non and the South African
lamb are not yet ready 20 be sociab.e in
this particular manner. At all events, the
cats have sworn of killing mice and rats
in Chicago, at least for the present; they
have done more, they have gone even fur-
Their than this They have deserted Chi
cago in great numbers during che last year
and the rats and mice are holding high
carnival. Some of the feAnes are reported
as having left this present sphere of eN-
istence voluntarily and unaided; others
nave been forcibly assisted to move on.
But in many cases the Chicago individuals
who have aided in send ng the unwilhng
Toms ard Tables to the land where hu-
man beings are not. where the small boys
cease from troubling and the bootJacKs
are at rest are now regretting ther former
and too impuisive actions.
When it comes to sending to the country
for cats paying express charges to nave
them shipped into the city, and even rent
ing cats for generous sums per day or
week things have reached a pretty pass
in city where the cats used to hoid gay
revels nightly and where the wall OF the
disconsolate or too joyful feline was won't
to be heard plenufully IN the 4ahu put
little while ago.
The explanations offered in regard to IL
are many, but the labor solution IS the
only one which really fits the case
II don't know whether some feline pied
piper has come along and whistled the
cats away or whether they have declden
that Chicago is too wicked city in whlch
to bring up the children of respectable
cot families" said a man who has peen
recently trying to drag out a catless ex-
istence in one of the wholesale dlstrlcts
! of Chicago one day last week but where-
as we used to nave cats to the right OF
us, cats to the left of us, cats in the
| basement cats in the attic and cats every
| where else almost as far as the eye could
reach, there is scarcely a cat to be seen
or found nowadays Some weeks ago
! gave all my buyers instructions to peg
! borrow, steal or even purchase cats wher-
! ever and whenever they could and snip
/ them in to me, but only a very few have
/ reached my office at yet. Meanwhile All
/ South Water street is suffering This
hasn't been a good year for the Owls me
farmers and hunters often send us in for
4 the same purpose and we're lonely for cats
I with a vengeane. Very soon, I am afraid,
we shall all suffer the fate of the famous
bishop whom the rats devoured and ne
eaten up. as we sit at our desks by
swarm of mice and rats. Our only hope
( of salvation, as it now seems, lies in the
hot IF ha ng1a al
/ grain, nuts, sweetmeats and even can
! vas bags to human flesh so far. AS it
is, well. our pocketbooks suffer great
deal indirectly from their depredations."
Another man to whom the cat famine
has brought much real and deplorable loss
, in business way, and whose very soul
longs after cat Of the old-fashioned,
rat-hating kind, is a wholesale dealer in
/ peanuts This man declares that find or
procure a cat of any kind he cannot, al
| though he has sought such an animal
patiently and in many ways. The rats
and mice in his establishment meanwhile
/ are anticipating a very merry Christmas.
/ The owner of the great bags of nuts which
they are steadily devastating declares
that bankruptcy stares him in the face,
unless a cat can be obtained. He would
/ like whole army of cats better than
! one, for little while at least
, Nor are the residence districts exempt
! from this dearth of death-dealing felines.
! Hyde Park has been practically catless for
some time-ever since the craze for vivi-
section and biological experiments took
possession of the students at the Chicago
| University and the Hyde Park High
School Previous 10 that time sober and
| CIod-fearing residents of the pleasant sub
urb found it difficult to sleep o nights be-
cause of the cat concerts and political
meetings which were held underneath their
! windows. Nowadays although a prohibit
. district HYDE Park nightly +
ed with rats and mice galore-bold, bad
rats and impudent. self-assertve mice
and Hyde Park men and women alike "see
! things" CHASTITY, awful shiver-nducing
things in the shape of gigantic rats and
| mice just as soon as the early winter dark
ness comes on. Lone women sleep with
! walking sticks and croquet mallets beside
| them and look under the pillows for mice
instead of under the beds for burglars ev-
cry night of their lives Men who have
been detained late at the office or who
| have been sitting up with sick friend
continually wake up the wives and fami-
lies whom they are so anxious not to dis
turb by means of the vigorous stampngs
and poundings on hall and dining room
floors which are necessary to scare away
the rodents even temporarily. Little chill
dren make friends with the rats and mice
and take them unto themselves for pets
and playthlngs or go nearly wild with
fear according to rearing and tempera-
ment. From north and west side homes
and boarding houses alike come similar
stories.
And the worst of it all is that hope seems
conspicuous by it's absence The high-bred
cats of the Two cat clubs with which Chi
cago is blessed are altogether too ars-
tocratic to work. The more common cats
of the barns and alleys and the middle
class residences have either become con-
verts of the mo slaughter" cult or taken
= unto themselves wings or feline railway
tickets and quietly hied them away
Meanwhile the price value and social stat
us of cats in Chicago have been suddenly
exalted, and a good mice and rat killing
cat is considered quite a nice thing TO
choose for a Christmas present nowadays,
even If the said cat be unable TO show a
perfect and aristocratic genealogical tree
or has never figured in cat exhibitions or
cat-ology magazines. For the worm which
is trodden on will turn at last, and the