The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-03-19

Charles M. Frey, the Harlem rat. wrote that sooner than have the oity overrun with rats and everything eat er up by them, I would rather have you relieved of jury duty" has sent his vaIedictory to the city that kept him sitting on juries when he would fain be expelling rats and quoting Vir- gil. Omar, Confuci1s. and other quot able persons with the Mayor. Frey has gone to Los Angeles. Presuma ply, he has gone there to try his hand at California rats He has bui1ded him self a-dwelling place, and the name of the cornerstone of that house is Good Cheer, and the telephone mum Der. Home 262O6.
 To New York, by mail, came re- gently three pink sheets bearing Frey 8 classic letter-head, ':Audaces fortuna juvat," and extending the ratcatcher's g farewell to friends and foes of the days of my early trials and disap- pointments and of my late endeavors and successes Some day, Frey writes, he may make a book, and the name of the book shall be, 'HThe Rat catcher's Impressions of Men and Things, or Crude Thoughts of a. Crude Fellow
 The valedictory begins thus poeti- cally; 7
 y
 pass
 Among the Guests, Star-scattered on
 the Grass,
 And in your joyous errand reach the
 Spot
 Where I made One-turn down an empty Glass.
 with the ratcatcher's apologies to the tent-maker).
 The ratcatcher-p philosopher of New York has hied himself away to the glorious land of sunshine, flowers, and claret, and-alas-he returneth not Insomuch as have been a public character, more or less during my last few years residence in New York city, I consider 1t fit and proper to take public leave of my many friends as we'll as of my few enemies God bless them,) and with that object in view this epistle is written.
 Gaynor and N4aMk Shah
 T should consider myself guilty of base tngratitude were I to allow this opportunity to pass by to express my heartfelt thanks to the Chief Magis- trate of New York city, Mayor Gay nor, for his kindness to me. As the tentmaker of Naishapur thrfved and grew great in mind, by the aid and under the protection of the benign MaIik Shah at Merv, so did Mayor Gaynor's recognition of the humble ratcatcher from Switzerland pave that Individuals way to greater usefulness in the U. s. A. Every time I as- cend a lecture platform to speak on the subject to which I have devoted all my time and energy for the last twen- ty-one years, my heart goes out in gratitude to my benefactor, who, with a few kind words raised me from obscurity and made it possible for me to serve my fellow men in the capac- ity for which I am best fitted.
 The tentmaker had the best of me in that he became great; but I have one on him in that I am still alive; poor Omar is dead.
 II have many other things to thank New York for; the Fates have dealt gently with me. I am grateful, above all, to kind Providence for having thrown me in contact with so many good people, thereby enabling me to preserve my optimistic spirit, which is even more marked to-day than it was when I landed in New York, a poor emigrant, with much less knowI- edge of the ways of rats and men than I now possess. Some of my exper- fences since then were harsh. more were pleasant; but the former did not suceeed, as they do in too many cases, in effacing or stultifying the finer sensibiIities of life, inculcated in me by my smother and my preceptors, in the days of my early youth. For that, I am truly thankful
 Did not the great Victor Hugo say, when he was past eighty: T have win fer on my head and eternal spring in my heart ? And is it not the privilege of an hum bIe admirer of the creater of lean Vatican at least to try to emu late the master, even though the dis A11ale be minus the silvery locks?