Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher | Page 6

ferrets to keep (and ferrets are
often lost down drains or killed by Rats); also sundry other expenses,
such as store cages, etc. Then, again, the Rat-catcher always has to pay
a man to help him.
I don't call Rat-catching a trade only: I maintain that it is a profession,
and one that requires much learning and courage. I have found this out
when I have been under a warehouse floor, where a lot of Rats were in
the traps, and I could not get one man out of 50 to come under the floor
and hold the candle for me, not to mention helping me to take the live
Rats out of the traps. I just relate this because at some places where we
go and where we catch perhaps 30 Rats, the first thing they say when
the bill is presented is "Why, you have got 15s. worth of live Rats!"
They don't think of the damage 30 Rats can do to fancy goods, nor do
they consider the evil smells that men have to tolerate under the floors
or from the bad drains.
I could relate many interesting anecdotes of what I have seen and heard
about Rats, but I fear its perusal might take up too much of my readers'
time. There is, however, one thing I will mention. I dare say you have
heard of Rats running about in "swarms" in the night. Do not believe it.
In my whole experience I have never been so fortunate as to meet a
"swarm" of these, when I have had an empty cage on my back, and an

order for 12 dozen live Rats at 5s. per dozen. When trapping at farms
on a moonlight night I have seen a train of Rats almost in single file
going from a barn to a pit or brook to drink, and then I have simply run
a long net all along the barn very quickly, sent my dog round the pit
and caught all the Rats in the net when they ran back to get in the barn.
For in these places you must be as cunning as the Rats to catch them.
The quickest way for a farmer to get rid of Rats is to run a long trail of
good oatmeal outside his barn doors, and shoot them on a moonlight
night. I have seen 11 killed at a shot in this way. They will stay eating
the oatmeal because they cannot carry it away. At farms or out-houses
you might poison Rats round a pit or along brook sides where they go
to drink, although I don't believe in poisoning, as one never knows
where it ends--the Rats being likely to carry the poisoned food about,
and then dogs, hens, pigs, pigeons, etc., may pick it up.
There may be a few more ways of catching Rats than I have
enumerated, but I think I have given the best ways in detail. Some
people think that to use

THE MONGOOSE
is very good, but I think that the mongoose is no better than a good fox
terrier dog or a good cat, the only advantage in the mongoose being that
all the Rats it kills it will bring back dead to its habitation, and that
stops the dead Rats from smelling under the floors. I think that the
mongoose is not half so sly or sharp as a good cat, and a mongoose,
moreover, has to be taught how to kill a Rat (just the same as a dog). I
am fortunate in having actually seen a mongoose and a Rat put alive in
a tub together, and the mongoose would not even look at the Rat. And I
maintain that the mongoose cannot compare with the ferret anytime, for
the simple reason that a small ferret can get anywhere that a Rat can,
whilst the mongoose must wait until the Rat comes out to feed. For
instance, if a board of a floor be left up for a mongoose to get under the
floor, it can only get into one of the joists; but a ferret can follow a Rat
wherever it goes. Then again, the Rats can smell a mongoose even
more strongly than they can smell a cat. So these facts prevent my

recommending a mongoose on any account. I have also heard of people
experimenting with different sorts of

DRUGS AND CHEMICALS
for enticing Rats out of their holes. I hope none of my readers will be
attracted with this device. I hold that there is nothing that will tempt a
Rat from its hole like hunger. The nearest approach that I have found to
entice the Rodent out of its hole is oil of aniseed or oil of rhodium, but
the