Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 272, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1914 — Making New Orleans Ratless to Keep Out Plague [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Making New Orleans Ratless to Keep Out Plague

NEW ORLEANS, LA. —The federal government is helping this city to rid itself of rats, those carriers of the fleas that carry the bubonic plague. On June 19 a case of bubonic plague was discovered here. A hurry call was

sent to the public health service, and a strenuous campaign was started to stamp it out. The government was concerned in preventing its spread to other sections of the country. And the task is costing the government $27,000 a month. There are three kinds of rats, but the worst is the Norwegian rat. He is the nomad of the rodent family, a oilitant brute that soon cleans out all others of his tribe. It is he who carries the flea whose bite causes

bubonic plague. And he carries it everywhere. Plague is thought to have reached New Orleans from the Orient via Liverpool.Hfhich trades largely with the East. The rats are being exterminated with poison and with traps. Several expert rodentologists were brought from San Francisco and they have trapped as many as 7,724 rats in a single week. It is a herculean job to ratpipof an ancient rabbit-warren of a city like New Orleans. The city has been divided into districts, each under the charge of a doctor of the public health service, and a survey has been made of each district, of all rat-breeding or rat-harboring places noted; and now they are cleaning up the place. Holes are being stopped up;, buildings raised or lowered so that they clear the ground sufficiently to allow circulation of air and sunshine or else hug it too closely to afford shelter to the rodent; walls and foundations are being fixed to keep the rats from getting through.