The Washington times., 1913-12-13
SUMS UP[|FE| IN
WISE MEMS WORDS
knowledge Essential to happi-
ness Easily Told, Says Gay
nor'ss Rat Killer.

Los ANGELES, Dec. 13.-Charles NJ.
Frey, the rat catcher-philosopher, whose
correspondence and interviews with the
late Mayor Gaynor attracted attention
some three years ago, recently told of a
hnal talk with the late mayor. Mr.. Frey
IS now following his trade of exter-
mihating vermin in Los Angeles.
II went to see Mayor Gaynor just be-
Tore / started on a 16,0o0-mile trip
through Europe the rat catcher said.
Mr.. Gaynor said, Mr.. Frey, 1 want to
ask you a question. President Eliot
says that all the knowledge essential
10 human happiness and progress can
be obtained in certain books which can
be placed on a five-foot shelf Pesident
Butler, of Columbia, says that all knowl-
edge essential to human happiness and
progress can be confined in twenty five
volumes What is your opinion on
this?
Il felt that the mayor was testing
my literary taste and my general knowl-
edge. So / thought a moment and
then answered, i believe that both esti-
mates are too large-that all the knowl-
edge essential to human happiness and
progress can be obtained in twenty-five
words.'
He Is Surprised.
The mayor expressed surprise and
asked me on what based my assertion.
I reminded him that the seven wise men
of Greece each had favorite motto
ana that all of these notices put to-
gether make Just twenty-five words. Mr..
Gaynor said he thought there was some
controversy as to who really were en-
titled to be included in the seven wise
men told him had settled that ques-
ton to my own satisfaction and gave
him the notices"
The seven wise men and their notices
were given to the mayor by the rat
catcher as follows:
Solon-"Know thyself."
Chilon-"Consider the end"
Pittacus-'Know thy opportunity" /
Bias-"Most men are bad"
Periander-''There is nothing impos-
sible to industry"
Cleobulus-"Avoid excesses."
Thales-"Surety is the precursor Of
ruin"
Mr. Frey's account of the interview
continues:
Mr. Mayor 1 said, you take these
seven sayings and give one days con-
temptation to each, beginning Monday
ending up on Sunday, and you will Be
surprised at the knowledge that will
come even to man of your position and
scholarship The mayor told me that
I had missed my vocation-that ought
to to leave rat catching to devote all my
much as Dick Wilmington walked into
the city of London with a cat under
each arm and afterward became lord
mayor. /, with my rats. had an equal op-
portunity to become a successor of Mr..
Gaynor."
Buy Killing Trust.
The prosperity of Mr.. Frey in his new
business field in California may be sur
missed from the fact that the Pasadena
paper refers 10 Mr. Frey's concern as
''the rat catching and bug exterminat-
ing trust" The head of this trust
was called to Pasadena to drive the
moths and other vermin out of a Pasa-
dena hotel. which had been unoccupied
for some time. The expert used his
hydrocyanic acid gas method. Two
tardy employees of the hotel were
shooed out just in time and guards
we're placed about the building to pre-
vent any one entering and going the
way of the moths
Mr.. Frev told the interviewer that
probably he would have been lecturing
in the public schools had he stayed in
New York. since Mayor Gaynor said he
considered such lectures a useful
branch Of public education. never take,
up by professional vermin hunter.
i am now the official lecturer of the
Nationsi Association Of Real Estate
Exchanges and of the National Asso-
ctstion Of Building Managers he said
Arrangements are being made for the
expert to lecture in Pasadena next
spring on the determination of the
house fly.