Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1915 — WAR CAUSES MICE EPIDEMIC [ARTICLE]

WAR CAUSES MICE EPIDEMIC

Bread Crumbs Dropped by French Sol- - diers Attract Swarms of Rodents. London. —One curious resuit of a foreign invasion is recorded in the letters of Prince Metternich to Mme. de Lieven. From Judenburg, a small town in Styria, the Prince writes: “The Burgomaster here has been expatiating to me on the large amount of damage done by mice to farms in the surrounding district. On inquiring how long they had been afflicted in this way 1 was told, ’Since the French were here.’ ‘Do you mean to tell me the French brought mice with them?’ 1 asked. ’No,’ replied the Burgomaster, ‘but they ate so much bread that they covered our fields with crumbs, and since then all the mice in Styria appear to have settled here.’” ..