The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-28
1886 PIED PIPER
LAUNCHES WAR
ON CITY'S RATS
Former Undertaken Expects
to Kill 10000 Rodents
Here Weekly.
BY TOM OCHILTREE

Promptly at dawn today. w. F.
Amann and his army of three
launched a city-wide campaign
against the city's 725,0o0 rats. They
intend to advance along a wide
front and carry on operations for
six weeks
If they meet with a fair amount
of luck, and get enough contracts
from local concerns, these modern
pied Pipers" estimate they should
average 10000 fatalities week.
Mr.. Amann, the tactician of this
force, is a big, jolly fellow who was
a st. Louis undertaken until rats
almost ran him out of business. In
desperation he fought back, and
was SO successful that he was hired
to clean up the city.
That was % years ago. and since
then, Mr.. Amann has followed this
vocation in almost every city in the
country. His death toll runs H.
100000. This last of a vanishing
tribe of boomers" gets his mail in
Washington, but his home is
wherever he hangs his hat.
To Mr.. Amann, rat killing is a
romantic business. He pictures
himself on an outpost of civilization
fighting against mans mortal enc
mics. But, no matter how sue
cessful he is in his wars. his work
never is done.
Under favorable conditions, he
says, rats can breed at the rate of
100000 year. A few years after
he kills off many of them, the
population has been restored to the
former level This is his fifth
campaign here.
Talks by Hour on Evils
He can talk by the hour on the
evils they do. The Federal gov
eminent estimates, he says, that
rats destroy $1,000 100000 worth of
property and eat $400,000,000 worth
of food annually. In addition they
spread bubonic plague, pneumonia
plague, trichonises, cancer, typhoid
fever and infantile paralysis.
There used to be five or six or
CARNATIONS that fought rodents,
but the depression has driven all
but Mr.. Amann out of business. In
several cities, WPA projects on rat
determination have been set up.
He has directed some of these and
may do some of that work here.
There seems to be more rats
than ever during the last two
years." he asserted. II have SO
many calls now, it is impossible for
me to reach all the cities needing
help"
Explains His Attack
How is this war carried on? In
stead of rifles Mr.. Amann uses a
mixture of deadly poisons.
First he saturates large quanti-
ties of food with the poison and
scatters it around as bait. After
the rats eat it they rush into the
open and die some IL to Is hours
later.
Therein lies the secret of his sue
cess. The rats must have air and
water after they have been pois-
oned, and this produces remarkable
chemical effects Although they
don't know what a chemical re-
action is, they realize shortly that
it is the last of the ninth inning
for them.
Blames Columbus for Rats
Mr.. Amann blames Columbus for
our rat troubles. There were none
here, he says, before the discoverer
landed.
Now every city, no matter how
we'll it is kept, has this problem.
He claims he exploded the theory
that rats can't stand high altitude
by killing group of them on
Pixies Peak.
Richard Cameron, Robert High
and Ed Coffman are members of
his army. Like their chief, they
like the work because they get to
travel around.
Although Mr.. Amann uses the
f1neest kind of food for bait. it's
nothing for rats to chortle about.
and there is to be a lot of missing