Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1911 — RATS EAT REVENUE STAMPS [ARTICLE]

RATS EAT REVENUE STAMPS

Mystery That Puzzled United States Officials for Several Week* at FL Wayne I* Solved. Fort Wayne, Ind. —The activity of a colony of. rats explains the repeated disappearance of revenue stamps from barrels of beer shipped to Avilla, north of this city, and clears up a mystery which has given United States internal revenue officers In Fort Wayne much concern. Tn<. first complaint, received several weeks ago, was that six barrel* of beer In a railroad warehouse at auditing delivery tc the con-sig-nee, aad been stripped of revenue stamps. The government authorities and Deputy Collector L. e. Sharp conducted an examination. He was unable to solve the mystery and with much red tape the missing stamps were replaced. The revenue office was notified of tho second case<the other day. but with it came the information that rats bad been discovered at the work, and appparently bad been attracted by the paste used on the stamps.