A RAT’S END, OR A TAIL (TALE) OF A RAT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 812, 9 November 1877, Page 3

A RAT’S END, OR A TAIL (TALE) OF A RAT.

o There is an unexplainable attractiveness in a rat hunt; it awakens, somehow, all (hi latent ferocity of our nature, and in a moment people hitherto calm and staid a e •worko! into a state of excitement and frenzy at the prospect of ' his diversion. On Tuesday last an unusual commotion was observable in a street at Clyde. On running over with the rest the cause was ascertained at a glance : a juvenile rat was caught in a tvap, and apparently uninjured. The owner of the Imp and rat called his dog (a large retriever), and ami I the wildest “ hall 's’ ” the dog was set on to worry the rat’; but the dog could not understand attacking so insignificant a victim, but quietly took it into his mouth and then gently deposited it on the ground, with a look of trusting confidence the rat made for the dog, who received it with a smile of affection, tenderly playing with it and soothing its fears This was totally opposed to the natural order of events, go another dog of supposed ferocious tendencies was sent for ; but, alas ! with the same effect, when again a third dog was produced, but with a similar result. Here was a sudden stoppage of the sport, a quite unforeseen hitch in modern war‘f ire ; when, at last, some inspired by-standcr suggested » cat as the only means of meeting the difficulty, and a boy was at once despatched ior his young mother’s old cat, or his old mother’s young cat, 1 forget which. Tint pasay, on arr ! ving at the scone of acts n scorned the hiclear, and scrat'hing the boy who held her bolted through a garden fence, while the rat took a “ header ” in the town race, seeking death a“ n relief to its ridiculous position. This was denied the unfortunate creature, who was landed high and dry on the pavement, when a Council of war was hel I as t"> means for his extermination. Strychnine, Seidlitz Powders, and dynamite were respectively suggested, and in turn rejecte I, until at last application to the Police was determined upon. But, in the meantime. the rat after cogitating over the mat. ter so’ved the difficulty by resigning a life that had become burdensome to him under such humiliating circumstances, expressing with his latest breath contempt for the wisdata and ingenuity of the human race.