Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-12-06
A PIED PIPER IN REAL LIFE.
Rat Catcher of London Has Method Of
Luring the Rodents.

my mind. The scare Of plague recalls
the man and his business.
| met him, by chance, in one OF
those little old-fashioned streets, OF
Queen Anne and Georgian houses
which still remain on the Slum side
of Westminster Abbey. Outside one
of them was a high dogcart large
sack Dropped up against waiD and
the man. 1t was the sack which first
caught my eye. 1t was a most Pc
culiar sack. or rather. it was an or
dinary sack behaving in most pecu-
liar way. l can only describe it by
saying that it heaved. and wobbled
and squirmed.
stopped abruptly and said, "Hullo!
What the duce is inside that sack?'
Then l saw the man. He was
tall fellow, respectfully dressed, with
pale. thin face, a long nose and
greenish eyes. He smiled in answer
to my expression of surprise, and II
was then that l noticed the greenish
CLINT in his eyes.
Whats in the sack?" he said
well, take look!
He went to the sack, united the
piece of string and opened the mouth
of the sack, very cautiously, as / peer
ed over it.
Good Lord" said. You don,
say so!"
As a matter Of fact, he had said
nothing, but the sight he showed me
was astonishing. Inside that sack
was a heap of live rats, writhing
clawing, kicking. struggling and biting
Ugh that bagful of Vermin was
beastly thing to see.
The man with the greeniSh eyes
thrust his hand down and drew out
with a sharp jerk, one of the gray
rats. He had got his head encircleo
by his thumb and forefinger and its
legs were kicking furiously.
That's a fair size!" said the man
Then he dropped it back into the bag
and tied up the string again.
There are 800 of 'em inside there.
he said. Not bad for one nights
catch"
Three hundred" 1 cried. Where
on earth did you get them?"
He told me that he had caught them
in a city warehouse down by the river
He also told me that he expected to
get "a good few" in a city restaurant
that very night. Meanwhile he was
going to sell this sackful of live rats
to some fancy gentlemen down Mitch
am way, who liked to give their dogs
bit of fun on a Sunday morning.
He hoisted the sack into the dog
cart, and with a good morning to
you" put his foot on the step.
Look here" l said, II should be
sorry not to meet you again. Do you
mind giving me your name and ad-
dreSs?"
"Why, certainly" said the man, and
taking out a neat little case he handed
me his card. Underneath his name,
which was an ordinary one, was an
extraordinary title. 1t was nothing
less than "Ratcatcher to the City OF
London"
Il am the only man Of my trade in
the London Directory" said my new
friend, with touch Of pride. III you
ever want my services
1t is needless to say that from the
moment he handed me his card l was
consumed with a desire to know more
of the man and his methods. 1t was
only a night or two later when L met
him outside a city restaurant down
side street less than a half mile from
Ludgate Circus.
1t was 8 o'clock. 1 recognized my
man in the dark doorway OF the res
taurant, which had been closed Tor an
hour. In the Pickering light of a street
lamp his thin face, with its long nose,
looked whittier than when L first met
him in Westminster, and there was
the same strange. greenish CLINT In MS
eyes. Two steel cages about foot
high were on the ground beside him.
He carried a roll of white cloth un-
der his arm, and in his right hand a
bull's-eye lantern and a long, white
wand.
ANY ferrets or dogs?" l asked.
Not much!" was the answer.
DO you put poison down." L said
"Pi'son!'
The man repeated the word saw
agely. I'm not a plague merchant,
he said. Every rat l take is live
rat and l leave no dead 'uns.'
He told me that he had already been
inside the restaurant just as II mao
shut UP for the night. He had seen
that there were plenty of crumbs ano
bits of food about the floor, and had
fixed up nets-poachers' nets, ne eX-
plained-across the passages and door
ways. There was nothing to do now
but get insi. and wait bit until the
Inside the long dining room on the
ground floor of the city restaurant
there was absolute darkness, and the
stale. fetid smell of warm dinners thai
had been cooked and eaten, or cigar
cites and of beer dregs and wine dregs
of cheese and the refuse of restau-
rant at night. In the darkness, nol
relieved by even the faint glimmer OIL
a candle. but with just a CLINT or llsh'
twinkling through the rim of the IAN
tern with it's bull's-eye closed, the raj
catcher stood motionless at one corner
of the room. For an hour he Stooo
there without budging, or any sign OF
recklessneSs. Only his breath stole
through the silence with a regular
rhythmic whisper as a CLOCK on tne
wall beats out the time with STEADY
tick-tack.
Presently there was another Sound
It came very family at first, like the
rustling Of dead leaves down a path
way. Then there came queer little
Inoises-tiny voices, piping and squeak
ing, tiny feet, pattering, running
frisking along the ground floor din
Ii ing room of the city restaurant. THESE
sounds of little footsteps came from
one direction only at first. Then from
other parts of the room they twittereo
and battered, and there were creak'
| ings down the old wainscoting of the
walls, and little rushes and dashes
along bare boards, and little thumps
and bumps against wooden partitions
and a general hurrying and scurrylne
and chivying and scampering. the
room was alive!
Then for the first time the silen'
man in the corner moved. He, too
came to life again. He opened the
bull's-eye Of his lantern and its Egh'
flashed like a sword through the dark
ness. 1t lighted up his face, in which
hig eyes blaZed like a cats eyes al
night. 1t lighted up the white willo"
wand with which he began to beat the
floor so that it made a noise like pisto
shots. 1t lighted up swarm of rats
on the restaurant floor, on the chairs
and tables, on the ledges round the
walls. Rats! Gray rats black rats
brown rats, big old fellows with full.
Grown whiskers, fat old females ano
Youngsters from the rat nurseries.
The noise of the white willow wano
whipping the floor filled the swarm
| ing mass of vermin with the ecstasy
of fear, and to add to their terror the
man, who was in the midst OF them
now. was making peculiar noise
/ H..