Waterbury Democrat., 1901-07-13
RAT CATCHING A SCIENCE.

Rat catching is q profitable business In New York. London and other large cities, and professional rat catchers are numerous. Proprietors of stores and warehouse make contracts with these men to keep their stores free of rats, and the professional gentleman adds considerably to his revenue by selling the captured rodents to rat pits. This is why he always captures them alive. So-called sports, who en- joy seeing a fight between a terrier and anywhere from dozen to a hun dred rate, willingly pay the price of admission and the proprietor makes about as much again by training young dogs. If dog gets severely bitten in his first encounter with a rat he is ruined for life, for he will never get over his timidity. To guard against this he is matched with rat some of whose teeth have been drawn The dog wins an easy victory and if there is anything in him at all he will never again fear rat or dozen rats.
 These pits cause constant demand for rats and the professional catchers always catch them alive. Tn old build- ings which have been completely tun- nelled by rats the fayorite way is to block up all the holes but one or two and to place a succession of traps at these, one trap entering into another A ferret or mongoose is sent in and the rats scurry away in fright. So great is their terror of him that they
 will rush madly anywhere to get out of his way. They bolt out of one of the holes that have been left open and find themselves In trap. They pass from that to the next one, and so on to the last. As fast as the out
 side trap is filled, the catcher closes the doors, and so on until every trap is filled, or the building is emptied of rats.
 | The most curious method is that of the catcher who takes rats with his fingers. He will sit down in a rat | infested building and whistle, chirp and make other strange noises. The rats seem to be fascinated and come out of their holes to hear him. As ! fast as they come within reach, he 1 picks them up between his finger and thumb, and drops them into a bag. He always takes them by the back. of the neck and so avoids a bite. Some | of these men use pair of small tongs,
 but that is looked upon as unprofes- | sional.
 Some of the loafers along the docks l earn their drinks catching rats,
 but their methods are clumsy as com | pared with those of the professional. and their success is limited, for the rat is as cunning as fox. They gen. ! erally use q snare at the mouth of l the rat hole, and tempt the rat out by | using q bit of cheese or bacon rind. l For person whose only object is | to get rid of the rats and not to take
 him alive, a very effective method is | by means of a barrel half filled with 1 water. The barrel is laid on it's side and square hole cut on the upper | to let the rats in to drink, for
 rat is the thirstiest animal in the
 world Some bricks are piled up in
 the barrel, the end of the top-most | one a few inches above the water I Sticks are laid to enable the rats to
 climb in and out. After few days | they will have gained confidence and
 the sticks are taken away. One of | the rats will drop ill and sit on the
 brick to drink. When he finds he I can't get out he will squeal and the other rats will come around to find out what is wrong.
 One after another they will get in.
 and the squealing gets louder and
 louder as they fight for q place on the
 brick, and this is said to keep up until every rat in the building has met with
 watery Exchange.