Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-14
PIED PIPER At WORK
Clearing Rats Out. Of the q.
s. Capitol
DOGSANDFERRETS
BEGAN WAR LAST NIGHT ON THE
HOUSE SIDE.
Many Rodents, Slaughtered During the
Evening--Battles to Be Con-
tinued for Two Weeks.

| eager and Watchful, were running hither
| and thither, trying to locate scent. The
n aster of the hounds was in the lead, STIR
| ring up heaps of debris, in an endeavor to
start up something for chase His fol-
lowers were just as anxious for some sport
| and were ready to jump when anything
showed up.
There goes one,'' shouted some one. And
| just as his eyes had caught sight of the
animal, the dogs had seen it, too, and they
| were off like flash. Their prey was cum
| ming and was not to be easily caught Now
| he was hidden from sight; again he was
scurrying along in plain view of every one
The dogs gained on him; faster and faster
they went, lessening the distance between
themselves and the object of their chase
They were almost on him; but he turned
anc eluded capture. The dogs however,
were on his heels and there seemed no
GRANGE of escape. He circled, made two or
three false starts, and was off like fash
In new direction. But the stop was too
long. One of the dogs pulled I'D even with
him. and with a little yelp of exultation
the dog snapped the throat of his victim in
MS teeth. There was a fierce struggle. The
squlrmlng animal struggled to be free. He
was just slipping from the dogs grasp when
the canine with a snap of his head and
movement of his jaw, caught fresh hold.
For one last moment his victim worked to
get free and then gave up to the inevitable.
And the dog, with his head in the air re-
turned to the hunting party with his can
ture-a big rat.
Plenty of Excitement.
| 1t was rat hunt, and it furnished plenty
OF excitement to the small group of on
lockers. No one knew just at what mo-
! ment the next rat would show up as they
| came at no snail's pace. If one showed his
body in plain sight, it was usually the last
journey In his existence. with no chance to
outrlVal Patti in the number of farewell
tours. Let a rat but be seen by one of the
dogs, and he might as we'll have been a
Russian soldier in the aim of japanese
gun, and he certainly did not have time to
write any last letter home send any
death-bed messages to his family or friends.
1t simply the question of a short rum
visit to the inside of bulldog mouth
and the crushing out of life. Each rat got
inside information of THE construction of
mongrePs mouth and very intimate ac-
quaintance with the teeth that go with it.
Pied Piper Story.
Apparently it was the story of the Pied
Piper of Hamelin acted in real life. The
Hamelin in the case was the United States
Capitol and the Pied Piper was Clarence NJ
Barclay, son of E. l.. Barclay, the ferret
man." Mr.. Barclay has made contract to
hunt out the rats in the Capitol for twelve
consecutive nights, and last evening the
first hunt took place. In the next fortnight
the campaign is expected to result in the
practical determination of all the rats and
mice in this center of government c. M.
Barclay is an expert rat hunter. having de-
voted much of his time to that business for
the past two years and over. In the work
he employs assistant. a colored man of
keen wits. To look at him he looks like an
ordinary person, with a sleepy look in his
eyes. But when he gets into a rat hunt his
wits work like flash. and many a rat has
laid down his life under a blow from this
rat charmers stick.
Mr.. Barclay uses two dogs and two fer
rets in his hunts. One of the dogs is
large, powerfully built bulldog. At all times
he is ready to spring on a rat like a flash.
He is a trained rat hunter, following up
scents and routing out the little animals
wherever possible. 1t is an unusually quick
and cunning rat that escapes the snap, of
this bulldogs jaw if the dog once sees him.
| The other dog is a small terrier active,
| Woodworking and quick One wonders,
| when he tackles a big grandfather rat
which is the dog and which the rat. But
| the end of the struggle always sees the rat
| like d Napoleon at Waterloo. The two fer
| rets are used to run out the rats from wood
| piles, holes, crevices etc. There is ami
NAL, even several times the size Of a fer
ret, that rat is 50 afraid of as one of these
| little fellows A rat will run into red-hot
oven to escape a ferret if there were no
other place for him to CO.
Began in Basement
Last nights hunt began at about half
past I. In the basement on the House side
! of the Capitol there is large room. used
| for waste paper This is a Mecca for rats
| as the paper furnishes them with the finest
kind of domiciles. The rat hunters began
| to stir up the papers in order to start out
| a rat. Two men worked for some uinutes
turning over piles of paper and boxing up
| crevices.
| There's one" resounded from -. -a,-.r
throats at once. And sure enough run-
! mo of fba lie
| rat. he didn't seem to want to s! IN RI
| see what the excitement was, but ran
| right along home to his mother The
| dogs Were in another part of the room
| and failed to see rat No. l.. The work of
| stirring up the papers continued for
! about two more minutes, when suddenly
a large rat darted out almost under the
| dogs feet. The rat made a start for the
| door, but it was closed and he turned in
another direction. General Lee" the bull
| dog, had glanced in the direction of the
rat and was after 1t like tramp would
| go after piece of apple pie. The rats
run was short until the dog overlook
| him. The rat was running in a circle his
| feet making about 1000 steps per second
| The dogs first snap did not make connec-
tions with his prey; but the second did
A snap, violent shaking of the head
| and a beautiful specimen of an alder
manic appearing rat lay dead on the pa
| per at the dogs feet. It was the first
catch of the evening. Hardly had the on
| lockers taken their eyes from this Incl
dent when there was little yelp from
| the terrier a shaking. of his head and he
! trotted over to his master with second
victim. Thus the sport continued for
some time.
Wen have rat pie tomorrow" sug-
gested one of the guards.
TOO bad Mr.. Roosevelt couldn't be here
for the hunt. How he would enjoy get
ting after few rats, another suggested
Whole families were cleaned out in the
terrible onslaught. Fathers, mothers
cousins uncles, nieces-al were treated
alike Like, the toothache that goes away
when one goes to the dentist, the rats
last night seemed generally to have had
an inside tip on what was coming, and
many removed out of sight.
For years the basement of the United
States Capitol has been almost an ant-fiill
for rats. Guards, engineers. firemen and
others around the building tell beautiful
stories of the number and daring of these
animals in this place. Any day they can
be seen scampering around the filed vol
umes of books, along conduitS and water
! pipes; in fact, all through the basement of
| the building.
| The rats We're indignant last evening at
| the disturbance of their peace and tram
| quiliity. For generations past their ances-
| tors had been allowed to live in the build
| ing practically unmolested They had bored
| holes through doors or windows by hard