A RAT STORY.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 162, 28 October 1876, Page 3

A RAT STORY.

The number of rats inhabiting' the rocky crevices and cavernous passages at the summit of Pike’s Peak—says a correspondent of tbo “ Pollblo Chieftain” have recently' become formidable and dangerous. These animals are known to feed upon a kind of saccharine gum that percolates through the pores of the rocks, apparently npheavcd by some volcanic action. Since the establishment of the Government signal station on the Summit of the Peak, at an altitude of nearly 15,000 ft, the animals have ac'quired a voracious appetite for raw ami uncooked meat, the scent of which seems to impart to them a ferocity rivalling the fierceness of the starved Siberian wolf. The most singular trait in the character of these animals is that they arc never seen in the daytime. When the moon pours down her queenly light upon the summit, they may be seen in countless numbers trooping around the rocky boulders that crown the barren waste, hud in the warm summer months they may be seen swimming and sporting in the Waters of the lake, a short distance below the Peak, and of a dark cloudy night, their trail in the water is marked by a sparkling light, giving the waters of the lake a bright and silvery appearance. A few days since Mr John T, O’Keefe, One of the Government operators at the signal station upon the Peak, returned to his post, taking with him, upon a pack animal, a quarter of beef. It being late in the afternoon, his colleague", Mr Hobbs, immediately left with the pack animal for the springs. Soon after dark, while Mr O’Keefe was engaged in his office forwarding night despatches to Denver and Washington, he was startled by a loud scream from Mrs O’Keefe, who had retired for the night to an ad ■joining bedroom, and wbo came rushing into the office screaming : a The rats ! the rats!” Mr O’Keefe, with great presence of mind, immediately drew around his wife a scroll of zinc plating, which prevented the animals from climbing upon her person, and although his own person was almost literally 'covered with them, he succeeded in encasing both of Ids legs in a joint of stove pipe; \vhen he commenced a fierce and desperate struggle for the preservation of life, being armed with a heavy cane. Hundreds were destroyed on every side, while they still seemed to pouf with increasing numbers from the bedroom, the door of which had hceii left open. The entire quarter of beef was eaten in less than five minutes, which seemed to Only sharpen their appetite for an attack upon Mr O’Keefe; whose hands, face, and neck .wore terribly lacerated. In the midst of the warfare Mrs O’Kc efe managed the office, from which she threw a coil of electric wire over her husband that sprang outward and spread itself over the room, thoti, grasping the valve, of the battery, she poured all its terrible power upon the wire. In an instant the room was all ablaze with the electric light; arid hundreds were killed by the shock, when the sudden appearance of, daylight; made such by the Coruscation of the heavily charged wire; caused them to take refuge among the crevices and caverns of the mountain, by way of the bedroom window, through which they had forced theis way.

The now postal cards will be issued throughout New Zealand on the Ist of November. The J\‘eu) Zealand Tablet says : —“ The Lord Bishop of Ossory has raised a voice of warning against the Society of the Ancient Order of Foresters* which he stigmatises aS‘ a now form of Freemasonry,’ and as having entailed the greatest misery on its unhappy dupes. His Lordship issued a pamphlet ou the subject to prevent a branch biiig established in Kilkenny, and authorised the clergy to announce the withholding of the sacraments from the members of the Society.” TheManawatu Times of the 21st mat. has the following :—“ Although there are lew people who in their juvenile days have not practically learned the nauscousness of brimstone and treacle, the first idea roused in most people’s minds by the mention of that ’delectable compound is connected with Do-thc-Roys Hall and Mrs Squcers. The Argils says that four members of Mr Abbot’s family at Horokiwi, will, however, hereafter have a very different association connected with this favorite spring method of purifying the blood. The young people in question, aged respectively’ It), 15, G, and 4 years, were thought suitable patients to be submitted to the process, and the treacle having been procured, it was duly mixed with what Mr Abbot believed to be flour of sulphur, and several spoonsful administered in due course to the young people, who, in a short time after, were seized with the most alarming symptoms of arsenical poisoning. The brimstone and treacle was remembered, and on investigation it was found that instead of flour of sulphur Cooper’s patent sheep dipping composition powder bad been used. This resembles flour of sulphur, but contains also arsenic and other ingredients. Strong emetics of salt and water and mustard and water were administered, and medical and other aid wus sent for. Fortunately, however, the prompt moans resorted to proved efficient, and the young people were pronounced out of donger when Dr, Taylor arrived. It was a narrow escape, however.”