Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1908-05-14
WILL KILL BATS
BY BURNING PATRICK HENRY's
VIRGINIA MANSION.
Millions of the Pest Have Taken Pos.
session of il and People Driven
From IL.

|
From Ii.
A dispatch from Aylett. Va. saws
Montvilie, one of the most famons
and historic places in Virginia IS tn
he burned to the ground by its own
owners. the great grandchildren of
Patrick Henry, because il is overrun
with bats. Since the warm weather
began there is no living in or near
the place. Bats by the thousands
hans about the grand parlors- and
spacious bed rooms of the colossal
mansion. Attempts to exterminate
them by poison and with clubs have
failed.
They are in every room. They
hang in long stripes. as is their
habit. from the furniture, from the
ceiling. from the walls and they are
In such numbers that they form cur
tains before the windows, darkening
the house during the day At night
fall they loosen themselves from each
other and dart to the yards in such
numbers that they strike each other
in their flight
Recently Philip Aylett. one of the
owners of the place and an engineer
attempted to make the house bat
PROOF. Every crack. every door. and
every chimney was stopped up. but
the bats found way to enter. They
coulg get through cracks which
would hardly admit roach Mont
vile was built about the time the
Americans drove the English out of
the country. and its woodwork is old
and brittle
Montville is now owned by the six
children of the late William Aylett.
They inherited the home from their
father, who had inherited it from his
grandmother. Elizabeth Henry, who
had married an Aylett After the
death of William Aylett, half dozen
years ago, his sons and daughters
married and moved away and Mont
vile was rented for the first time
since it was decided in 1870 to the
first Aylett who came 10 America by
Charles H.
From the day the lease was signed
bats began to invade the place. The
leesee tried living in the mansion
with his family. but IL was impossible
During the day there We're strings
of bats yards long. The first of the |
grewsome creatures would cling to a |
piece of woodwork, to the wall, the |
window SILL. or to stick of furniture |
and his fellows would cling TO him. |
forming string Of sqeaking, repul- |
Sive objects.
The moment the sun set the string
would dissolve and the bats would |
seek the open. squeezing through the
cracks Of windows or doors and |
through the floors and walls.
The lesse and his family took quar- |
ters in cottage 900 yards away
and the manson was abandoned.
The AyIett children offered prizes |
to the negroes who could kill the !
most bats. child stood in the |
front door one afternoon and with a |
tennis recquet knocked down 1000 |
bats. The negroes for Il time came |
from every direction. hoping to win
the bat prize" but after thousands
and thousands of the creatures had
been put TO deaah there was no APP
preciable diminution.
Poison was then paced IN every
part OF the house, but the bats only
seemed to thrive on it. This spring
the bats have become a pest to the
neighborhood. and the owners of the
old mansion have determined to burn
II to it's foundations. The bats can
be got rid of in no other way.