The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-09-17
SLOGGETT AS A NEW
PIED PIPER OF
HAMELIN
THE RATS OF HONOLULU, PANIC
STRICKEN BY THE MEASURES
AGAINST THEM ARE MOVING
TOWARDS THE MOUNTAIN.

THE RATS ARE MOVING MAUKA.
1t is the belief OF the Board of Health
officials that the present campaign
against the rats has had the effect of
creating something of a panic among
the rats of this Island especially in Ho-
nolulu, where the campaign has been
carried on most vigorously, and that in
consequence the rodents, moved by a
common impulse of fear, are moving to-
ward the mountains and away from the
localities where they are haunted by
the fear of traps and the dread of poi
son.
DR.. j. S. B. Pratt said this morning
that there were many evidence of this
movement on the part of the rats. The
campaign against the rats has resulted
in killing and capturing large num-
bers of them, though not as large num-
bers as was expected. The efforts have
been put forth in very many localities,
so that wherever the rats have turned
they have found traps and poison
awaiting them. Rats" says DR.. Pratt
ARE very sagacious in regard to traps
and poison When their fellows fall
victims to these, rats seem to recognize
the cause and the danger and begin
to fight shy of one and avoid the other.
Whole colonies are known to leave To-
calities where these dangers beset them
In the present case traps and poison
confront them in so many localities
that there is nowhere for them to go
but towards the mountains. Just what
they will find there to live on l don't
know except that they are very fond OF
algerOba beans, and there are other
seeds and plants which they can feed
on. Birds and eggs may afford some
measure of food, and 1 suppose if worst
comes to worst with them, they can
feed on each other"
The rat campaign has been going on
for some time. A special force has
been employed by the Board of Health
to urge on people the necessity of en-
deavoring to rid the community of rats,
which are one of the most potent cause
of the dissemination of the infection Of
bubonic plague. These agents of the
board have in addition, distributed
poison and given instruction in it's most
effective disposal, have shown how
traps could be most effectively used and
generally have sought not only to kill
rats but to interest householders in the
community generally in the anti-rat
propaganda.
One of the poisons distributed to a
considerable extent is one for which the
agents claim that when the rats eat it
they do not die around the house but
seek the sewer and drown themselves
where their bodies are quickly carried
out to sea in the sewage and thus do
not create unpleasant or unhealthful
stenches. When this claim was first
put forward it was suggested that ac-
coBding to that the poison would be
useless where there We're no sewers, as
there would be no sewer for the rats D
go to and die The claim was there
upon modified to the effect that after
taking the poison the rats would seek
water and dark places, of which the
sewer was the type and ideal.
But the Board of Health officials feel
that there are now many indications of
success crowning the campaign. The
rats are leaving and it is as if Presi-
dent SlOggett of the Board of Health
were another Pied Piper of Hamelin,
leading the rats of Honolulu up the
Tantalus road to extinction in the
mOnntninS-