Waterbury Democrat., 1902-07-31
COOKE STREET RAT STORY
Hunted and Pelted it Finally Lodged in Toe of Henry Atwoods Shoe

Hunted and Pelted it Finally Lodged
 in Toe of Henry Atwood's Shoe
 Henry Atwood of Cooke street, keep CT of the town store, walked into his office in the city hall building to-day mopping his face and looking for all the world like man that had just taken part in a sprinting match. Af- ter he had an opportunity to catch his breath Superintendent Doran of the board of charities asked MT. Atwood If anything was wrong and if so what could, he do for him. MT. Atwood re- piled that there was nothing serious the matter, though, he would have given good deal for a little assistance an hour or so earlier. Then he related an encounter he had with a rat and wound up by stating that once or twice during the battle his courage failed him and that had it not been for the presence of other members of the family he would have fell a vic tim to the onslaughts of the rodent, which fought furiously and on one or two occasions had the whole Atwood family on the run. During the en- counter several missiles were. aimed at the rat but struck wide of the mark and in some instances made smithereens out of useful and orna- mental furnishings. The rumpus was forced upon MT. Atwood by the pres ence of a rat that commenced to gnaw on his bedstead early in the morning and when attacked put up the gamiest kind of tuSsle and then seeing that further resistance was useless con cealed itself so securely that it took its aSsai1antS oyer an hour to find out where it was. The rat has been stop ping at the Atwoods for some time past and had a way of getting in and out of the house not known to the family until this morning when some one saw it coming up through the register and threw back the bolt be- fore the unwelcome visitor had a chance to get out. Finding himself cOrnered the prisoner entered the, room where MT. Atwood was in the land of dreams and commenced chew ing the end of the bed and liked it so well that it kept munching the wood until MT. Atwood heard it and after seeing what was there he buckled in to it, using one of his shoes as a weapons The rat dodged the shoe and other things aimed at it and kept running from one place to another until it had MT Atwood pretty well tired out and then it made q bound for him and fastened it's teeth in his night shirt. MT Atwood thought the rat had cut him and shouted to his son, who by this time had been aroused by the noise and was hasten ing to the rescue. When the rat saw endorsements arriving it let go it's hold and disappeared under a bureau. The article was moved into another corner and turned on it's side but no trace of the rat could be found. Then the whole house was searched with out results and this was kept up until young MT Atwood had to leave and hasten away to his work. The search was continued for an hour or two long ger, but seeing no sign of the intruder MT Atwood concluded that there was no use in keeping up the hunt and he sat down to dress himself. When he put his foot into his right shoe he felt something on the inside, but didn't think anything of it and being in hurry he gave the toe of the shoe q kick against the floor to drive his foot into it. Then there was music. The rat was in the shoe and commenced to squeal and Mir Atwood was so scared he forgot to pull it off and execut6l q war dance about the room, every leap he made bringing his foot against the rat with greater force until it's vicious squeals soon ceased and in short time it was silent. Then the shoe was taken off and in order to make no mis- take that the rodent was demolished MT Atwood gave the shoe three or four whacks against the bedpost and then shook the rat out on the floor. 1t was dead. but the victor was so exhausted after the encounter he was scarcely able to find his way to the office. The head of the rat was towards the toe of the shoe and probably thus saved MT Atwood from being badly bitten. But he killed the troublesome visitor any way and although it cost him con siderable exertion and loss of bric-a- brac which got knocked askew while the row was going on, still he is pleas ed to be rid of the tormentor for it has been an annyance to the whole family for almost a year.