A WOMAN RAT-CATCHER
* Mrs Bendict'a business Is that of a ratcatcher, a new profes3ion now fairly opened to women, and one whioh Mrs Bendict at least has made lucrative. The business of rat extermination is not striotly new, and yet Mrs Bendict is fairly entitled to rank as its inventor, at least m an important sense. Sho has raised it to the dignity of a profession. It haß always been ea*y for housewives who were troubled with rate to poison them, bat the poblem haa been to Induoa them to die outside their haunts, They have usually preferred to retire to tbeir inaccessible retreats m the walls as soon as they have felt the symptoms of arsanfeal poisoning, and the low atate of sanitary science prevailing m their communities Is Buoh that poisoned ra'.a ora. never properly buried or indurated by their associates. The problem hss been how to kill the rats without bringing unpleasant odours into the house. Mib Bendict haß found out how to induce ruts to die on the kitchen floor. Like many inventors, she is some* what indebted to accident. She was engaged, It appears, m the domestic manufacture of plaster castß cf various kinds. One of the devices was to mix whoaten ftaur with her pulverised plaster of Paris, so that the gluten of the fl jur might make the paste less brittle. One evening she had visitors, who rang the bell door jnst as she waa sifting the mixed plaster and flour for the third time by way of mixing them intimately, aa the chemist Bays. She had already set a dish of water at hand, intending to make aD experimental oast at once, and when the door bell rang she hastily removed her apron, and went to wolcome rer guest*, leaving her materials upon'the kitchen table. Tho gueßts stayed till bodtimo, and when they bade her ad lea Mrs Bendiot went to bed without returning to the kitchen. Whit happened In the night was this : — \ rat made his way up the legs of the tiblo to the top where he was Bpeodily joined by others. The dish of flour and plaster was easily reached, arid the rats ntn fraely a^d hastily as is thelf custom to do. It was a rather dry supper, and water being near, each rat turned to drink. The water drunk first wetted the plaster m the rats' stomachs, nnd then m t ohnical phfaso, " eet It." that is to Biy, 1119 glaater thus made Into a paste instantly grew hard m each rat'a stomach, and put an end to any further exercise of that organ The rats decided Mr Mallock's question, "la life worth living 1" m the negative without qniCting the table, The next morning thirteen of them lay dead m a circle around tho water dish. Mrs Bendict, when she entered the kitchen for the purpose of making hor fire, caw them and acted— that is to say, she -screamed and olimbed upon a chair. From that position she studied tha ecene. and very Boon saw the caueo. Like a wise woman, she kept her secret, and made profit of it She undertook, for a consideration, to clear the premises of her neighbors of the pests and succeeded. I*; wnR not long before the town was ao free of this sort of vermin as if the pied piper of Hamelin had travelled that way.
At Chriatohurch on Tuesday Mr Justice Johnston granted a decree nisi- m Bowern v. Bowern and Kitohin, with oosts against Kitohin. Neither respondent nor co-respon-dent appeared. The latter haa left the colony. Bowern, it is stated, had been separated from nis wife for four years during whioh he had allowed her £3 a week, and m addition gave her £55. The weakest woman, smallest child, and sickest invalid can use American Co.'s Hop Bitters with safety and great good. Sco Half Asleep »— .«' I never," wrote a young lady to a friend, " go to ohurch or lecture but I am half asleep, and I never know afterwards what too sermon or leoture was about." It was a plain case of nervous lethargy, produoed by want of action of the liver and digestive organs. She was persuaded to try American Co.'s Hop Bitters, and now she writes : — " How intelligent and bright are eermons and lectures now, and how glorious the world we live m isl Dr Soulo's Hop Bitters are indeed a blessing to me." Notice
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1549, 4 May 1887, Page 3
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742A WOMAN RAT-CATCHER Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1549, 4 May 1887, Page 3
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