Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-04-06
GIRL IN BUSINESS
OF KILLING RATS
Gertrude Heitler Succeeds to Trade
in Which Her Father
Excelled.
SHE USES HER BARE HANDS
Not Afraid of Rodents and Has Crews
Of Men to Work Aboard Ships
and in Buildings.

New York.-New York now has the
only official woman rat catcher in the
world. Through the recent death Of
her father, William A. Heitler, last ex-
cept one of the old-time rodent exter-
minators, who caught them with his
bare hands, Gertrude Heitler, slim of
form, has become his successor.
In the little messed-up room at 1872
Broome street, that is laboratory, rat
cage and vermin exterminator manu-
factory, she can be found any of these
days porting over the score sheet which
details the operations of her "rat-
catching crew." in ships, hotels and
moods-and she is generally-she may
be found tweaking the tail of Fiji, her
pet house rat, or Mozart, hoary father
of many generations of wharf rodents.
Afraid of rats? Miss Heitler gazed
in establishment at me and then grin
ned in sympathy with the barber from
the shop next door, as she rubbed
Fits head and flicked away from Mo-
Fart piece of rye bread that he was
methodically eating in circular nib
bles.
"Not me-" she laughed. 81 love all
animals. Why, ferrets, rabbits, rats,
guinea pigs and squirrels are the mic
est of all. You ought to have seen the
prize guinea pigs just sold this
morning and some Of the pigeons we
have at home in Red Bank"
Miss Heitler possesses what the old
successors to the Pied Piper of Ham
lintown had-a magnetic influence
that keeps sharp-teethed rodents in
blissful subsection. She does not use
any magic flute and she does not sing
| any tunes to them.
All her life Miss Heitler has known
rats-imported, domestic, lean and fat.
Her father when IL years old went to
work for Harry Jennings, called "Dick.
the Rat" AID until he died last week,
forty-five years later, he did nothing
but kill rats. His score was nearly
half million, and in all that time he
boasted he never used poison.
| In the old days he cleaned the great
hotels and apartment houses, but the
era of fireproof construction swept
along and his efforts were limited to
dwellings, steamships and sailing yes
sels.
Miss Heitler, as directing head OF
the business, now sends her crews OF
rat killers daily to the New York
piers. The Clyde and Mallory line
steamships are among those thorough
ly searched by them every time they
come into port.
| The greatest asset of the business is
the magic food, which is used to lure
the rats to an untimely end by blow
of a strap or pair of iron tongs
"Dick, the Rat" invented it, and Heit'
Ter added a few more ingredients.
When the crew, who always work in
the dark, fitting about gloomy
smudgy places by the flicker of a
searchlight, drop that magic potion
about there is scurry.
Most of the rodents caught are
killed Immediately. In the days when
germ culture was just becoming
known thousands were used for exper'
mental purposes by hospitals. But
the wharf and ordinary house rat has
disposition not attuned to familiar
ity. He bites and scratches, and in
juries so inflicted generally are fol-
lowed by blood poisoning. So nova
days the hospitals and experiment sta
tons rear their own rats, generally
white ones, or experiment with guinea
pigs.