The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-07

dl~ llUl lIlCllIlSu to pldCe MuCu T6IlduC
 in traps, and wire netting will be uset
 instead to keep the pests from tn,
 building.
 The Census Office officials are en ideavoring to hush the matter up, ant 1 they declare that there are no more
 rats in their office than in any of tho other departments. The rodents arc
 getting bolder each day, and the fac,
 that the, building is infested with the yermin cannot be kept quiet mucl
 longer. Lively times are expected 1T
 the building where statistics are pre-. pared when the news spreads that be-
 heath the feet of the hundreds of wo.
 men employees multitude of rats are
 running nimbly abuot over the rafters
 in the cellar waiting for the clerks tc depart.
 On several occasions large black rats
 have had the termity to come out among the clerks while the work of the office was going on. During the last week several such instances have occurred, and many of the clerks cast | anxious glances in the corners now when they have occasion to move about. A few days ago three rats made simultaneous appearance in as
 many different portions of the building, and created momentary panic among the girls. Mice are bad enough, but the huge black rodent of Tiber Creek
 sewer, over which the Census Office Is
 built, strike terror to the heart of the
 average female census clerl. whenever
 they appear.
 The eyes of head clerks and division
 superintendents are constantly upon
 the women employed in the building
 and the officials are on the alert to pre-
 vent panic should the rats take 1t into their heads to invade the building in large numbers while the office is filled with it's immense number of en- poyees.
 Heretofore the rats have observed certain decorum in the matter. They rash and famished rats have appeared looking for food during working hours, refrained from paying their calls ex- cept after o'clock They have been we'll trained, apparently, by the old and conservative members of the rat family. When the bell rings at 4 o'clock, however, and the clerks begin to leave the building. the rats poke their noses through the cracks, and eye the waste baskets filled with crumbs, and the last employee is scarcely on the sidewalk outside be- fore the building is taken possession of by the hungry rodents. What goes on after nightfall in the big building can n1xy f1<a tf,,o oin nf f1o said to-day that every morning from six to eight rats are prisoners in the traps.
 When I came down to the building at o'clock in the morning." said the sweep yesterday, "the rats are thick in the corridors. They run around with perfect freedom, and are bold and fierce. There are lots of them in the building"
 The acting chief clerk MT. Fowle, verified the statement that rats infest the Census Office in large numbers. They have caused him considerable an ooyance, and everything possible has ,ecn done to get rid of them, but with ut success. He hoped, he said, to be l ltle to keep the fact that the build | s infested with rats from the knowl- dge of the clerks, and especially from he young women.
 We have tried traps without avail" aid MT Fowle yesterday. At first he traps were of considerable service, ,ut after while the animals became vise. and now 1t is rare for them to be aught They have learned to keep way from the cages. Various kinds f traps have been tried, and none of | hem can entice the rats any more. hey gain access to the building from he cellar. They jump from the round to the spaces between the raft rs, and then crawl up over tle floor 1g and through the wainscoting into ne building, The vain scotes have cen lowered and the spaces through ,hich the rats are believed to have en- cred the building narrowed. but they ontinue to come If necessary we ,ill place wire netting between all the alters of the cellar, and believe that i'll effectually shut them out. Traps eem to be of no avail"
 Joseph Fletcher, formerly an inspec- pr of public works under Gov. Shep- erd, who had charge years ago of the uilding of the Fiber Creek sewer, said that even in those days the fig sewer was infested with mammoth aus of a fierce variety. The Census ffloe Is built immediately over Fiber reek sewer, and it is believed that the ats which infest the building come 'om there.
 Some methods will undoubtedly be tken to break up the rat pest, and in le meantime the feminine clerks, it is oped by the officials, will not become armed d.--Washington Times.