Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher Part 2

The damage Rats can do to property, commodities, etc., is almost incredible. I have had so many examples of this that I scarcely know which to submit as ill.u.s.tration. I think the worst case I have seen was where they gnawed a hole half way through a 2-1/4 inch lead pipe, and often I have known them to bite through a one-inch lead pipe. The worst damage is done when they get under the flag floors of cottage houses out of the drains. They scratch the soil from beneath the flags, which then sink, and the consequent stench from the drains is abominable, jeopardising the health of the tenants. I have seen a great many of these cases in the poorer parts of Manchester. The damage the Rats will do in the silk and similar trades, to the goods of merchants, or in the grocery business, is enormous, and not so much by reason of what they actually eat as by what they carry away, which is often ten times as much as they eat. I have often proved this when ferreting at a wholesale grocery warehouse. When we have taken up the boards between the laths and plaster we have found the ceiling almost full of lump sugar, nuts, candles, etc., which have been there for years, h.o.a.rded by the Rats. Now, this all means heavy loss, and that is why I say that any business man so suffering ought to engage the services of a professional Rat-catcher once a year in order to keep the Rats down, and catch as many as possible before they begin breeding.

Another Rat habit may be noticed where the Rodents are accustomed to have their holes and runs among flags and stones. If they find any soft wood such as pine or white deal, they will nibble at it until it is eaten through. I have often known them to eat right through the legs of tables in the middle of cooking kitchens. This, I think, they do simply to keep their teeth clean and in order; I have known half-grown Rats to do the same.

Rats can exist a long time on herbage, if they can get nothing more palatable. It is a very common thing to find Rats in the rabbit burrows when ferreting; in fact, I have seen, not once, but many times, Rats, rabbits, and weasels all bolt from the same burrow. I have also unearthed a Rat and a rabbit together out of one single burrow.

Now as to keeping Rats in store cages at home. Look well after them, and I think it is possible to keep them alive for quite a year; but if you keep, say, 20 in one store cage and neglect their feeding,, you will find that when hungry in the night they will kill the weakest of their number and eat it, sometimes even eating two or three in one night, leaving the skin as clean as if a man had skinned them. It is always the best plan to put the Rats in different cages, according to their sizes. The young ones together, the old ones together, and the middle-aged ones together, as they keep themselves much cleaner when thus divided, and do not fight so much as they would otherwise. They must also be kept in a warm place; if not, they soon have cramp. Also keep them in a dark place and see that they have plenty of water; sprinkle them now and then with it so that they will wash themselves. It is astonishing what a hungry Rat will do. I have seen them in the summer at dusk run at an old hen with her chickens under her, and almost as quick as I tell it, the Rat has s.n.a.t.c.hed a live chicken and run with it under a pigsty floor.

I have known them to take half-grown young ducks from the water side. I remember once ferreting round a pit, near a barn, and when I put my ferret in the hole, it pulled out two dead chickens and three middle-sized dead ducks, and behind them, not more than a yard deep in the pit bank, was an old Rat. I have also known them to get into the coops where a gamekeeper was rearing his pheasants, and to kill nine young ones in a single night all from under the same hen.

Rats are also fond of eggs. I have read of many ways in which Rats take eggs, but in my quarter-of-a-century's experience of Ratting I never saw Rats take eggs save in one way, and that is, dragging or rolling them along the floor with their front paws, until they get them to the mouth of the hole. I remember one place where I was ferreting. There was an old cellar, the door of which at the top of the steps had to my knowledge been nailed up two or three years. Out of the hen house the Rats had eaten a hole at each side of the cellar door at the bottom. One day we burst open the door, went into the cellar (where it was impossible for a hen to get whilst the door was closed) and beneath the bottom step we caught two Rats. On lifting the flag at the bottom of the steps, we found 15 whole eggs, some good and some bad, all of which I am quite satisfied the Rats had carried down those nine stone steps! How they had done so I cannot explain, but content myself with stating only the plain facts of my own personal observation.

Rats are also very cunning in the water, say a pit or a river. Now, a Rat can exist in water for at most about seven minutes, and you will find when a dog is swimming after a Rat that the Rat is watching the dog all the time, for as soon as the dog gets within a yard of the Rat the latter will dive under water and come to the surface again about 15 yards away.

When the dog has tired the Rat out with swimming, you will very often see the Rat dive again and come up very quietly and just put its nose out of the water, or rest its head on a floating leaf. It is so cunning that it will remain still there, and if the leaf or reed gives way it will come up at the water side and just thrust out its nose to breathe. By this means the dog loses full scent of the Rat.

I have also noticed how useful are the Rat's front paws and tail. I have seen a Rat on the top of a swill tub at a pigsty, when the swill has been about ten inches from the top of the tub. The Rat was too cunning to jump down on the wet swill and drown, but I saw it reach as far down the inside of the tub as possible with its front paws and sc.r.a.pe the grease from around the sides! I have also seen the same Rat, when unable to sc.r.a.pe any further down the tub sides, turn round, clutch the top of the tub with its front paws, dip its tail into the swill, and then gain the top of the tub and commence licking its tail.

I have also tried an experiment with the same tub, which consisted of covering the top of the wet swill with bran, which floated on the surface, and placing a bit of lumpy swill in the middle of the bran, in the hope that the Rat would jump on the bran in the expectation of getting at the swill in the middle. However, it did not do so, no doubt instinctively guided against the danger.

I have also watched Rats run round a set wire or cage trap for a full hour. I have seen them go half way in and out again, look at the bait and never touch it, but go away and never return to the same trap that night. These examples show the cunning instinct of Rats.

There is, however, one power that the Rat is not favoured with, and I am afraid if they were they would be a greater pest. It is the ability of high jumping. A Rat cannot, I think, jump higher than three feet six inches, and will have to be very hungry before doing that to obtain food.

Many people may not know how fierce Rats are when fighting. Let me instance. I have often taken, one in each hand, two good Rats from my cage before a hundred spectators and set the Rats at each other on the top of a table. To see them fight would be surprising. They will fight like two bulldogs. When they have got a grip of each other with their teeth I have taken away my hands, and they have stuck and shook one another for at least half-a-minute, although you must understand that the moment they are loose of one another they are off if you don't catch them again.

There are several other cunning ways of Rats which I can scarcely explain. One must be amongst them regularly to know their wonderful ways and habits. Yet another little incident, in conclusion, may be of interest. I once called at a farm where they had been threshing a wheat stack. A Rat-catcher had been there but without a dog, and when I arrived two hours afterwards my dog made a set, and commenced scratching amongst the old chaff left at the bottom of the stack, and to the astonishment of myself and the farmer I pulled out of the hole where the dog was scratching 73 live Rats! The other Rat-catcher, who had been at the threshing all day, had caught only 14 Rats. This will serve to show that a Rat-catcher must not be without a good dog.

And now, respecting the ways and habits of Rats I think I have given my readers interesting and varied ill.u.s.trations of what I have seen and experienced during my time.

PART IV. LIFE OF THE RAT-CATCHER.

This work will not be complete if I do not deal with the Rat-catcher's life. The profession is a peculiar and exciting one, but all right if pursued in the right way. Although the calling takes one into dirty and obnoxious places, there is no reason why the Rat-catcher should not always appear respectable. The Rat-catcher has many temptations to dishonest conducts, for instance, when Rat-catching on a farm or private estate where there are numerous rabbits and game. It looks rather hard lines for the Rat-catcher to come off a farm with his cage full of Rats and see rabbits running about whilst he has all the requisites in his possession for catching them; and yet he must not touch one, but go home and merely reflect on what a good Sunday's dinner he is leaving behind.

This I have experienced many a time, but I have always found even from the business view-point that the old advice still remains true, "Honesty is the best policy." Leaving the rabbits to themselves has always turned out to be the best, for to take a rabbit worth a shilling, and get caught in the act, means that you can never go on the same estate again. And from that same estate you might have got 500 Rats in a year, worth four shillings a dozen.

I must also put in a good word here for the gamekeepers. My opinion is that if you go on a keeper's ground and do what is right, you will be able to go again, for in the whole of my experience never having carried any nets but Rat nets when on private estates, I have the consolation of knowing that I should always be welcome on going again to such estates.

Of course there are inconveniences that the Rat-catcher has to put up with. Whatever engagements he takes in a town, the only time he can catch Rats with a good result is in the night. On one occasion, when going round with my bull's-eye lamp to examine the traps, I was taken for a burglar by the policeman on the beat, and he doubted me so much that he would not release me until I had shown him my cage with Rats in and my traps set all over the place. Then he took almost as much interest in the catching of Rats as myself, and also brought in the other policemen who were outside waiting for me to attempt an escape. Ever after that, when I had a night's engagement in any town, I always went to the police station to tell the man on that beat where I was.

It behoves the Rat-catcher to be always attentive to his customers, those, I mean, who want live Rats wherewith to try their dogs. Amongst mine I have the honour to include clients of highest rank and position, barristers, magistrates, solicitors and a host of sporting gentry. If the Rat-catcher's efforts commend themselves to such gentlemen, and he always maintains a respectable appearance, he will obtain some very nice outings in the country. Oft-times a party of gentlemen have sent for me in the summer, having arranged with me to bring four or five ferrets and Ratting appliances, and we have gone 50 miles up the country. They would bring their terrier dogs, and we would hunt all along the brooks and rivers, and round the corn and wheat fields, putting the Rats we caught into the cage, and after lunch, taking the Rats to a meadow and coursing them with their dogs, which I think it real good sport. We would put up at the best hotels and repeat the procedure next day, very often taking a drag or coach, and driving ten or a dozen miles farther up the country.

I can a.s.sure my readers that the Rat-catcher is well remunerated for the trouble he undertakes in these cases, and moreover this is the cla.s.s of people he requires to fraternise with. There is always a plentiful supply of "refreshments" on these outings, and I would therefore advise the Rat-catcher not to indulge too freely.

The foregoing is, of course, a brief sketch of the pleasantest part of a Rat-catcher's life, and to complete the picture I may as well describe some of the other features, and the way he has to rough it sometimes.

Well, Rat-catchers are generally called upon to supply Rats for the Rat coursings usually held at beerhouses, etc., on Sat.u.r.day afternoons, which one often sees advertised. Now, if he binds himself to supply a coursing at a certain date, the bills announcing the event are printed and posted, all of which means expense. Then you are bound to secure the live Rats, whatever be the weather. In doing this I always followed the threshing machine to the bays and stacks. (Anyone that catches Rats regularly can tell by looking at the bays or stacks whether there are many Rats in or not.) I remember many times when the men have started threshing a bay of wheat in which were a great many Rats, and by dark they have threshed only half of the bay. At such times the Rat-catcher must not leave the remaining half, no, not for half-an-hour throughout the whole night, for if he does the Rats will run out. To stop the Rats from leaving, the Rat- catcher has to lie on the top of the bay or go about every thirty minutes and beat the bottom with sticks until daylight, in order to keep the Rats in. Then, after the machine re-starts, and the bottom of the bay is reached, the Rat-catcher will be well paid for his trouble, for he may get, say, 150 good Rats for the coursing, at six shillings per dozen. The reason I call them good coursing Rats is because they have not been handled, and that enables them to run well.

Now, when you go to these coursings (which are mostly in the colliery districts) you will find about 60 dogs entered. It is the Rat-catcher's business to measure and handicap the dogs, and a very unpleasant job it is. He has also to be the referee at these coursings, and if it is a "near thing" with two dogs running at one rat, and you decide to award the victory to a given one, then the owner of the other dog will probably accuse you of wrong-doing and favouritism. Then is the time the Rat-catcher has to be prepared to pull off his coat and start fighting before, perhaps, 500 spectators. This has often occurred with me. This, I can a.s.sure my readers, is what I call "roughing it."

Of course, what I have just related occurred a few years ago, but when the Muzzling Order came into force, the authorities practically stopped Rat coursing, for they would not let a dog run at a Rat unless the dog was muzzled. This was about the worst thing that the authorities could do for Manchester and district, for at that time I was supplying for coursings about 100 Rats per week, and at the same time sending 50 Rats a week into Yorkshire, and all the Rats I supplied were caught within 15 miles of Manchester. This in my opinion, speaks very bad of the Muzzling Order, which I think is nothing but a farce, for at the very time I was going ratting, dogs were muzzled in some parts of the country but not in others. My opinion of dog muzzling is, muzzle all or muzzle none.

You will see by what I have said respecting these coursings, etc., that the Rat-catcher has plenty of work to supply so many live rats, and he has also to mix with company high and low. He also sometimes experiences difficulties in travelling on the railway. I have often entered an empty third-cla.s.s carriage, sent my dog under the seat, and put the Rat cage there also. The carriage would fill with pa.s.sengers, and upon reaching my destination I would take from under the seat my cage full of live Rats, to the amus.e.m.e.nt of some and the disgust of others.

I have also entered a railway carriage with my cage of rats when there were pa.s.sengers in, one or two of whom would generally object to live Rats being in the same compartment, and on enquiring of the railway officials, I have found that any one travelling with live Rats is expected to put them in the guard's van.

I have also had a few good customers in my business, one or two in particular. Gentlemen have often sent me post-cards instructing me to take six or twelve Rats to their residences. I would run them out on the lawn in front of the house with their dogs, and generally I have received good remuneration for my trouble. These are the customers who should be looked well after, for they are the sportsmen who do not consider expense, though of course there are others who are just the opposite.

Further, Rat-catching is a business in which one is not called upon to allow credit. It is all a ready-money trade, and as there is not much compet.i.tion, the Rat-catcher can command a good price for his work. He has always one resource open to him when he has finished a job according to contract (catching say 40 or 50 Rats), should there be a dispute about the price and the people decline to pay the bill, then he has the expedient of letting the Rats at liberty again in the place where he had caught them. Most people will pay the price you send in rather than have the Rats turned loose again.

Although I am showing how the Rat-catcher can always have the advantage of stubborn payers, I may as well a.s.sure my readers that in all my experience such an occurrence as the above has never happened with me, simply because I always make my arrangements beforehand, which course I always find the best and most satisfactory all round.

Another matter I may mention. If any one could find out a sure way of catching Rats so that he could give a guarantee to clear large buildings, my opinion is that he would make a fortune in a very short time; for I know firms in Manchester alone that would pay almost any amount to be rid of the Rats; not only because of what they consume, but more for the damage they do to their goods.

I have referred to the Rat-catcher obtaining good pay. The reason he commands such a big price for his work at the present time is because there is not much sale for live Rats. The trade is not what it was some years ago when Rat-pits were allowed. I think it was one of the worst things they ever did for this country when the authorities stopped the Rat pits, for when Rat killing was allowed in pits, it was a common thing for a Rat-catcher to receive an order for 100 Rats, all to be killed at one time; then the Rat-catcher would get the Rats and wherever he got them from he was ridding that district of a nuisance. But when the authorities stopped Rat-pits and Rat-coursing, the consequence was that the Rat-catcher left the Rats to breed in thousands. Rats being vermin, I don't see why they should not be killed 50 or 100 at a time in the pit, but the Humane Society maintain that it is cruelty to dogs to put them in a pit with a lot of Rats. I don't see where the cruelty comes in, but from what I have seen of Rat-pits during my time I approve of them, and I think if they were in existence again there would be a clearing of many thousands of Rats. Some 15 or 20 years since, I supplied 400 Rats in one week, all to be killed in Rat-pits.

Many of my readers may not understand what a Rat-pit is, and so I will just give an outline as well as I can.

The Rat-pit is of circular construction, say ten feet diameter, and about four feet six inches deep, the sides being perfectly smooth to prevent the rats climbing up and making their escape. A certain number of Rats are placed in the pit according to the arrangements made with the owner of the dog. Then the dog is put in the pit with the rats to kill them, which a good dog does very quickly.

The reason the pit is built circular is so that the Rats will keep running round, for if it were square they would all run in a corner, one on the other, and then the dog would have no difficulty in killing them.

It is better to have the pit fairly deep; if not, the rats might escape.

I think the best dog, within my recollection, that I have seen was a bull and fox terrier, which killed 40 good Rats in three minutes and 21 seconds. I have read and heard of dogs doing better feats, but I am only writing of what I have myself seen. I may say that the records for Rat- killing in Rat-pits are held by a dog called Jacko, which killed 200 Rats in 14 minutes and 37 seconds, and 1,000 Rats in less than one hour and 40 minutes.

The Rat-catcher has also some very dirty jobs to do sometimes. Often he has to go under all sorts of cellar floors, both wet and dry, but the majority of places are very wet and dirty, for the Rats nearly always come out of some filthy drain, and very often near a water-closet, the abominable smell arising from these places being sufficient to cause a fever.

I remember being once employed at a hospital, and I was paid at the rate of 5s. per visit for trapping Rats. Well, I found that 5s. per visit did not pay me (I had about 120 traps set all over the place), so I went before the committee and requested 8s. per night. The committee said they thought 5s. per visit was enough, and one or two of them said they thought 8s. per night was above a Rat-catcher's pay. Now, as I was not depending on that particular job at the time, I turned round and told them what I thought. I told them I considered Rat-catching was a skilled occupation, and I also offered any of them a five-pound note if they would only follow me under the floors at midnight, not to speak of taking the live Rats out of the traps in the dark; but I can a.s.sure you that none of these gentlemen would venture to undertake the task.

Now, if any of these gentlemen had to do this a few times they would not refuse to pay the Rat-catcher the sum he asks, viz., 8s. per night.

I remember more than once in big places such as bonding warehouses, when I have been under the floors, my candle or lamp has gone out through being knocked over with grabbing at Rats, and I have not had a match in my pocket, and have had to grope about in the dark trying to find the trap-door where I have got under the floors, more often than not putting my hand in a set trap. It would be of no use shouting for a light simply because I have been alone. It is always better for a Rat-catcher to have a.s.sistance for night work, but I have done it myself very often.

Now, the expenses of travelling come very heavy sometimes, for wherever the Rat-catcher goes he always has to pay railway fare for himself and his dog.

Another thing I must tell you. Often when I have gone to inspect a small building I have found that there were a great many Rats in, but I have also known, after inspecting the place, that they have all come from the one place, out of the drain. Well, if I have contracted to do this job for a lump sum, I could easily clear this place and not catch an odd Rat, simply by ferreting them all back into the sewer in the daytime, and then making it good; but in most of these cases they do not like to pay your bill because you have caught no Rats. Still, you have driven them all down the drains, and after making the drain good they cannot get back again into the building.

Now, in a case like this I always trap them two or three nights and catch a few, just to give satisfaction to those engaging me.

Sometimes gentlemen will write inviting me to meet them at a certain farm, and bring my ferrets and a good supply of nets, alleging that there are "hundreds of Rats in the stacks." I just relate this to indicate how anyone not regularly amongst Rats can easily be deceived as to their numbers, for a couple of Rats on the thatch of a stack, especially when they have young ones, will probably have twelve holes eaten in the thatch and underneath the stack, and anyone not understanding their habits would think there were a lot of Rats in it.

And it is much the same with workpeople; if they chance to see two or three Rats at once, they will say there are "scores" of them. You would also be surprised to see the awful dread that tenants have of the Rat- catcher in private houses. When ferreting these places they think that if a Rat-catcher has once put his ferrets under the floor they will never see another Rat in the place; but depend upon it they are very bad to catch in these places.

I have often had much trouble respecting houses, warehouses, etc., to know whose duty it would be to pay the Rat-catcher for his work, the landlord's or the tenant's, but I think that the landlord should pay. I have had many engagements to catch Rats in newly-built houses before they were tenanted. The time the Rats get into these places is whilst the workmen are putting the drains in the back yards, leaving the drains open at nights. Thence the Rats come out and get under the floors, sometimes having to stop there, too, simply because the next day the joiners board up the floors and thus block the Rats in underneath, and then the Rats can always get into the kitchens up the back of the fireplace. Most property owners would do well to take note of this fact.

I must tell my readers, especially those having large shops, etc., that it is a good plan, if possible, to turn off the gas and water every night and week-end, for I have seen a good many cases where the Rats in the night-time have eaten through a water-pipe, and the place has been flooded by morning. It is just the same with a gas-pipe, and my opinion is that it is quite possible for fires to be caused by Rats in the night- time. Rats are very fond of nibbling and scratching at soft wood, and it would be an easy matter at a grocer's shop for a Rat to bite or scratch through the package of a gross of matches and ignite them, and the same cause may prove disastrous with any other inflammable goods.

Respecting the conveyance of live Rats, the Rat-catcher should always be particular to have good strong cages and bags, because if he had a number of Rats in an unserviceable bag which happened to break open at a railway station or in the street, I think he could be summoned for the damage the escaped Rats might do. Still, I have not in my time had or heard of a case of this sort.