Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 220, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1918 — WHERE CATS ARE POPULAR [ARTICLE]

WHERE CATS ARE POPULAR

Shops and Restaurants Need Pussy’s Assistance to Keep the Rats and Mice Away. “Cats as commercial assess are seldom heard of,” said the Sidewalk Tourist, “but tdbby is quite an important fixture with some shopkeepers and restaurant proprietors. Roaming arbund the city, I’ve often been Impressed by the frequency with which cats appeared ig fruiterers’ windows, and the other day I entered a shop and under cover of buying an apple asked about the three fats I saw perched In the store. “The salesman told fce that cats were indispensable in his line because of rats and mice. He pointed out that, if one of the rodents took so much as a tiny nip at an apple or 'pear, the value of the fruit was Impaired; for no one would buy an apple that appeared to have been nibbled. He declared that rats or mice would not eat fruit if they could get something else, but when their hunger became great enough they woultfe attack his stock in trade. “Everyone has noticed the cats that wander with faint ‘meows’ about restaurants and sit patiently at one’s feet waiting for a titbit. These animals aren’t there simply to give a ‘homey* touch; they are and waiting for the rats thm come for blocks to get at the food. Many restaurants have a galvanized iron sheet tacked in at the junction of their kitchen’s floor and Walls to prevent the animals from gnawing a way Into that department After the dining places close at night and the chairs are stacked on the tables, the mice or rats come out to foriige. It is then that the “watch cats’ are alert hunters.

“Many hotels, especially of small; side-street type, maintain a staff of cats to patrol the corridors. Women guests and the feminine fear of mice keep these retainers on the *pay roll.’ The cat battalions start out after midnight, and many times that doleful wall that strikes your ears is not from the rear yard, as you sleepily fancy, but from the hall outside, where one cat mournfully tells another how poor the hunting is that night. While, of course, it is easy enough t<s keep cats in apartments, the task of training them to consider a shop or restaurant as a permanent home is more difficult” —New York Times.