The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1916-03-12
PEST Of RATS
IN THE TRENCHES
Rodents Give the soldiers About as
Much Trouble as They
Get From tho
Enemy.
ONE MANS EXPERIENCE
Red Hot Chase After Rufus Was Fin.
ally Successful, But Was
Amusing For
While.
ONE MANS EXPERIENCE
EBy a British Soldier. ]

[By a British Soldier.]
SOMEWHERE ON THE WEST
ERN FRONT, Feb. 25.-(By mail. >
Rats are an awful pest in the
! trenches.
Rufus was an arch-pest; a super
rat.
Ny first experience with him oc-
| CURED in the chill dawn of morning.
He had ensconsed himself in the only
dry place, in my dugout Piquancy
was impaired to the incident from the
one Of my trench boots.
From that moment until his death
Rufus was the terror of my platoon.
Packages left by the postman were
| his speciality. If you were informed
| that package awaited you in your
dugout, you had to make for 1t at the
| double or resign yourself to the re-
Election that Sister Susie's pancakes
were providing the staple OF another
meal for Rufus.
| He lived on the fat of the trench.
1 He grew plump on the good things
of old England.
One day, spying Rufus bent on a
keen-eyed quest for booty, grabbed
small bomb and followed him. He
leaped up communication trench.
| pun SucO HlduCAuG lue ldSL
traverse, l beheld Rufus, poised on a
box, about to spring for safety.
pulled the pin from the bomb and let
fly.
To my surprise a din of smashing
glass mingled with the defamation.
| At that instant the colonel dashed
up the sap. Terror and rage con-
vulsed his features. He rushed past
| me and gave below which dwarfed
| the bomb explosion. Sandbags
tumbled. A piece of trench fell in
The Boches, thinking us about to
charge, Let Maxims rip. 1t was deaf
ening. .
'You-you-you." yelled the col
| onel, pointing to clutter OF smashed
glass and several dark stains on the
ground.
Rufus had escaped, but I had
| been perched. 1t contained dozen
of the coloners favorite port, left for
him by the transport sergeant that
morning.
A few days later Private Penny
farthing hurried up with news that he
had stalked Rufus to his lair
Five bob reward for his carcass! ="
shouted.
Breathless, Pennyfarthing and I
reached an old sap in the reserve
lines. Behind a shelving stone was
hole. .
HE lodged in there" said Penny
farthing.
Dig, dig" cried dig the brute
out! Kill him! Kill him!"
Pennyfarthing got help. They dug.
urged them to greater effort. The
earth flew in cascades. We demol-
ished the high bank which topped
the sap. After we had followed the
winding hole for six or eight feet
Pennyfarthing's spade suddenly left
his hand and Disappeared into
chasm.
We all stood gaping.
Then the earth wall we had been
excavating fell away. There was a
cracking of wood. An avalanche of
soil and sandbags vanished into the
cavity.
The colonePs trombone howl
sounded. @
We had cut through to his dugout
1t was falling about his ears, mass
Of mud and sandbags.
skunk away, battered hulk of
subaltern.
Later Pennyfarthing appeared,
dangling by the tail the source Of all
my shame and ignominy.
He was under the rubbish said
Pennyfarthing. How about that five
shillin,' sir?"
He got ten. A moment later, with
snarl Of cannibal joy, had hurled
the inert body far over the parapet.