The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-02-27
RATS TRACK FILTH
ON F0ODSTUFFS THAT
YOU MUST CONSUME

D
Right along with the cleanup of
the city comes the rat catching cam
paign, and it's one of the best times
to proceed to eliminate the rats. The
sure way 10 get rid of rats is to kill
the ones in existence. and do away
with the places that harbor them so
that future generations will have no
hiding place.
And this rat catching is serious
proposition, every citizen who owns
| property, yea, every person who eats
food, should resolve right now to help
catch rats. They're filthy, loathsome
things, ugly, vicious, destructive-they
take delight in wiping their feet on
foodstuffs after they've romped around
in outhouses and manure piles.
Thursday shoe dealer was fitting
a lady customer with oxfords when it
was noticed that the uppers looked
worn at the edges. Investigation re-
Vealed the fact that rats had been
gnawing the shoes, and the shoes we're
new spring stock too. The same day
nice fat rat walked out the rear
door of a meat market with piece
Of beef-we hope he got it off the
floor, but maybe he didn't.
The merchants down town can trap,
\ and trap and trap, and put out poison
| and keep cats, and still rats will
bother them as long as rats are per
mitted TO live around barns and trash
| piles and the like. If the rats in your
trash pile don't bother you, maybe
they run down town occasionally and
find their way into your fayorite store
and play around over food you will
eat the next day.
The human system can absorb a
great deal of filth and then get rid
Of it without materially affecting the
health, but the idea of eating the
stuff is not very enticing. Typhoid
germs come from but one place, and
after they have come from there the
only way they can get into the system
of another person is for that per
son to eat them; and that, too, be-
fore the exposure to light and air has
killed them. Not very nice thing
to think about, is it? Rats track In
the stuff that carries typhoid germs
and then track over foodstuffs. Talk
ing about clcan-up-why not in
clude rats?
For the city Of Ardmore, and VIII
son, Berwyn. Healdton, every town o
trapping. out on the farm poison
will do the work because the often
sive odor of decaying rat bodies viii
not be confined so much to build
ings. With the thousands of rat'
that are now infesting all of Cartel
county both town and country, only
concerted effort following plans fol
wholesale slaughter will accomplish
the purpose. Tub traps with water
pit traps, deadfall traps catch large
numbers with one setting. Manufac
tured traps, especially the common
guillotine or snap trap, are good; ant
have the advantage of being sure
and with a string of a dozen or Sc
set in suitable places with bait tha
will attract one is sure Of goot
catch as long as the rats last. Tht
ordinary steel trap, No. 0 or /, may
be used 10 advantage also; the rat /:
usually caught by the foot, its squeal
ing has a tendency 10 frighten Others
away and il sometimes escapes 10y
gnawing off the foot
In order to stimul2ie interest il
the rat catching, plshs are undel
way to offer prizes for the larges
catches. or perhaps to pay n certain
sum for each rat tail; one plan or th'
other viii be adopted and announce
.ment will be made next Sunday. II
the meantime, catch rats, cut off the