Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-23


but pied pipers are quite out OF
~ date. Nowadays when rats be-
come too numerous for comfort
or for health various methods OF
getting rid of them are employed In
Europe they have bounties on Mr. Kat
head or his tail: learned men devote hours
OF experiment TO schemes Tor MS eA-
termination; societies are formed to wage
war upon him. In America the RAT
catcher figures in directories of most of
the big cities. Right here in Washington
there is ferret mantle ferret man,
rather-who has made of rat catching at
once a science and fine art. has ele-
waited it from the status OF trace 10
that Of profession, and brought up his
sons to follow him in 1t.
When building here becomes overrun
with the squeaking, scurrying. Voracious
little pests the ferret man is sent for
lie has his headquarters here down on
Louisiana avenue in the market district
He has a ferret ranch out at New Lon
don Ohio He doesn't draw salary as
official rat hunter to Uncle SAM but tha'
is what he is practically, II not .heo-
retically There is scarcely one OF the
publjc buildings that he has not been
called upon TO clear Of rats during the
five years he has been In Nashlh8t"h
The big hotels and apartment buiidines
many institutions and office buiiclnSS
clubs. department stores Iheate!s aIu
markets have all proiited by his minlstra-
lions at one time or another Just lately
he and his ferrets and dogs have been
busy down at the navy yard, ana even
now he is figuring on exercising ms arr
Oh of the uitra-ldStioldoie .ouiiS
ladies' seminaries,
F.arrets are not pretty beasts. Neither
- the eye, nor TO the nose are t'leS at
tractive woman who was moved py
curiosity to visit the ferret man head
quarters said. They are nightmares II
i We're a rat and saw one coming drop
dead from fright. I'm not particularly
fond of rats. but compared with a ferret
rat is really a thing OF beauty. lovable ana
attractive. y good gray rat has mar OF
dignity and Self-respcct. an air even OF
breeding and brains which compeis au-
miration in the abstract. even II he mis-
on with unreasoning terror in the. con-
crete But a ferret-why. he's a loathy,
: misunderstanding brute. with his long.
yellow or white DCdy, that suggests a
gigantic inch-worm; his short legs ms
prying, wiggety nose and his dreadful
pink eyes. He's the she kiest-lookinS
creature. and the most implacable One
may want to get rid of rats. but II does
no. seem fair TO set such Il dreadful beast
as the ferret on his trail
All of which is perfectly true. fer
ret is a cumbersome creature-but he's
harmless, while il is established fact
that rats are active in the spreading of
deadly diseases-of typhoid and trychino-
sis in temperate climates. and of the
plague in India, where they are accused
% being the chief cause of the 10000
deaths therefrcm WHICH occurred during
the first half OF 1goI-and that they de-
stroy material estimated-in England
alone for instance-at c40oO0o. or ap-
proximately $2.0O0.UOV a year. Even in
America where the rats are comparative
~ few. the biological survey reported the
other day that the country lost each year.
through rats. squirrels and birls $1l0,O0
900 worth OF produce. So that on the