Stretford and Urmston Examiner. — 1879-08-09 (Stretford, Greater Manchester, England)

TREAT THEM.—The beat kind of rats to keep for amusement are, in my opinion, the white or the piebald, and I like the white better, though I am inclined to the belief that the piebald are the more clever of the two. However, this may be a mere matter of taste, although very few would for a moment think of taming the great brown or black rat. Very diffierent from this last in all its ways and habits is my elegant friend and favourite the white rat, but before describing the little animal to you and showing you how to choose a good pair. let me WI you what kind of house to provide for him, and how to feed him and bed him, for it is very unfair to invite even so humble a guest as a white rat to your house without first having prepared his bed and board and seen to all his little comforts. He lives in a cage, and this may be of any shape you pleise providing it is roomy, and that it should always be. I myself like a large square cage, with a front tower to it as high again as the little domicile. There should be a wooden pole or spirital staircase running from the bottom to the top of the tower, out through, and projecting upwards like a flagstaff, and, you will find that your little rodent, when he gets tame enough, will often want to climb up here and have a look around, just by way of seeing what the world is doing Inquisitiveness, indeed, is one of the traits of a rat's character. Every portion of the rodential residence which happens to be of wood ought to be protected with sheet tin, for rats can be very busy with their little teeth if they choose. Attached to one end of the cage should be a roomy box, with a hole through it for the rat to enter. The box must have a lid or a doorway for cleaning it out, but be otherwise a dark room. This is the rat's retiring apartment and sleeping berth and it should be lined with nice soft, dry straw, with which the qccupant will form a nest and bury himself quite up when, he sleeps. The dishes he requires are hang in the inside of the cage, near perches, where they can be easily reached but still kept clean. There should be a water-dish, a dish or a drop of nice milk, and one for the food. There ought to be a drawer in the bottom of the cage, that it may be cleaned out and kept nice and sweet; the bottom of the cage or drawer should also be lined with dry oaten straw, and to facilitate its being changed the cage door ought to be large enough to admit your hand. If you allow the rat to have the additional luxury of a walk on the roof of its domicile, that roof had better be of wood.—From "Our .Pets,"in Little Folks Magazine for Augusts  Sir H. Drummond Wolff, M.P., speaking at Bournemouth on Saturday, said the resignation of Khereddine Pasha might influence in a very important .way the course of Eastern politics. Sufficient time had not been given since the conclusion of the Treaty of Berlin to see if the promised reforms could be efficiently carried out. Sir Henry added that the Turks must be given to understand that they must place all the populations of Turkey on the same footing. George Pilford, of Windmill-street, Lambeth, has been arrested on a charge of murdering his wife, Louisa Pilford, on Sunday.. The prisoner appears to have had a drunken quarrel with his wife, and plunged a large „knife into her stomach, causing a frightful gash, which Proved fatal in a few minutes. The prisoner was lodged at Kennington Police Station, and brought up on Monday, on a charge of wilful murder, at the Lambeth Police Court, and remanded.