The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1904-06-16

appearing in hungry hordes
and overrrunning the haunts of men
in all parts of the country is a tale that
has been told often enough during re-
cent months, says the London Express.
One district after another has had its
rat plague. Some towns and villages
are even nov in the midst of the ex-
element of it, and doubtless other
places will be duly visited by the
furry pest. Dogs OF n sporting bent
are doing doughty deeds daily. Rat
catchers are finding a substitute for
old age pensions.
Two reasons may be given for the
present invasion of houses, farmysrds.
barns and poultry sheds by armies of
rats.
First of all, the steady increase in
the number of the rodents during the
last ten years or so is undoubtedly the
outcome of mans foolish persistence
In killing off s%toats, weasels, owls, pole
cats, offers, buZzards, snakes and other
animals which would assist him in
keeping rats within reasonable limits.
Then. with perhaps more rats in the
country, as a whole, than at any pre-
vious time in its history, the rodents
have been washed out of their field
and riverside haunts continually dur
ing the last twelve months and driven
to the homes of men for food and
shelter.
What can be said on behalf of the
most universally detested animal on
the face of the earth?
He is an agile and graceful creature
skilful in many ways, full of resource,
intelligent, a useful Scavenger when he
can be kept to that employment, full
of complacent happiness and desper-
ately plucky. When living undisturbed
in his own haunts, the rat is an affec-
tomato parent and comrade. Catch
sight of a rat sitting at peace on his
haunches, smoothing his whiskers, and
it is a pretty spectacle. He is said
to be Clearly in his personal habits,
although he is always at home in the
sewers.
His savage disposition is without
Il the result of the centuries of
hunting of which he has been the vic
tim. He was never popular, and has,
therefore, always been hunted. One
wonders what he might have been
had he ever been given a chance.
1t is the brown rat that plaques Eng
land to-day. The old English black rat,
q smaller and more elegant rodent far
less fierce and harmful, has been al
most annihilated by his W brother.
IN black rat was introduced into
England in the Middle Ages, coming
from the East in ships. He is the an
%~cestor OF all the fancy rats kept largely
now as pets.
The brown rat also comes from the
East-from Western China, to be pre-
else. He gradually spread over Europe
and in 1870 he first appeared in Eng
land, having been conveyed on ships
sailing from the Baltic. He has now
overrun Great Britain, and been taken
further westward by ships to America.
in parts of which continent he abounds
by the million. On one Jamaica sugar
plantation 10000 rats have been de-
stroyed in a year.
The rat is omnivorous. Nothing
oNSlIo W NO1hC dllllSS ~ ulEl. TOSSlDlX
this is the result of his being contin-
ually hunted from place to place and
time and again driven by stress of
hunger to eat anything that his teeth
can surmount. He is always working
havoc in game plantations and poultry
farms, destroying eggs and eating the
young birds. He has been known to
or w hnlaS In thn hnJioc 0f go 49,.
and destroy the soles of elephants
feet.
The London docks have always been
a fayorite haunt of the rodents. Over
5000 have been killed in a month by
the official ratcatcher. Formerly these
rats were taken out alive and sold to
dog IL for sporting purposes.
Happily this has now been stopped.
The carcasses of these rats have been
found to contain germs of bubonic
plague. A penalty of 60 hangs over
the head of any person who takes
away a live rat.
The carcasSes are collected every
mUrning and cremated on the quay
side in the presence of an official.
The sewers of London were once
swarming with the rodents, and the
sewer men were in the habit of max
ing large incomes by catching the rats
and selling them for sporting purposes
at three shillings a dozen. Many a
grim encounter did these men have
in blind underground passages when
several rats were brought to bay, and
it required no small amount of pluck
to seize the savage yermin.
When driven to extremity there is
scarcely a fercer animal existing than
the brown rat. He is also a serious
danger, for q bite from the garbage
poisoned teeth of a rat has often meant
death within a few hours. A desperate
rat will sometimes daunt the stoutest
bull terrier, and many a splendid dog
has died from q rat bite.
In severe extremity a hunted rat will
sham death, and be left for dead in the
gutter. But when all is quiet he will
recover himself and move away as