Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 157, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1914 — City Hall Cat Actually Has a Correspondence [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

City Hall Cat Actually Has a Correspondence

PHILADELPHIA, PA—lt is not often that a cat’s mail becomes so heavy that he must have a secretary, but this is the fact with Strike, the pet feline of the electrical bureau at city hall. Strike actually has a correspond-

ence —purely a social correspondence. It developed through no effort on his part, but because persons visiting this fcfty happened to see him and admired him and hi? tricks so much that they have insisted upon sending him letters and postcards on leasng here. His daily mail amounts to two letters and three or more postcards. - Of course, Strike does not actually employ a secretary, but his mail became heavy and had to be answered. Strike can do a lot of intelli-

gent things, but he cannot write, so Jim Rourke, an attache of the bureau, has to act as Strike’s secretary. Although Strike cannot read, he appears fully to understand when on* of his letters is read to him. He assumes and maintains a position of careful at ten ts oi as each letter is read. If the letter is one in answer to a letter he received, he appears particularly attentive. His objections are noted bv drag ging his paw over the floor. " He came Into the world as a very lowly, uneducated feline, but has so improved his mentality that he is now a feline Of high degree. He was a kitten when he first entered the electrical bureau. His name came to him through the fact that during Ere street car strike of 1910 he was thrown by a striking motorman’s wife at a non-union motormar. The Woman was arrested, and when she was brought to city hall for a hew tag she bad <UUe cat with her, .