Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1890 — The Rats Left in a Hurry. [ARTICLE]

The Rats Left in a Hurry.

An excellent authority advises perse verance in the use of a remedy one selects to rid himself of any variety of pests. This undoubtedly is true in most cases, but in every method chosen went as successful as that employed by a New York gentleman in a crusade against rats, there would be little need of its frequent repetition. Having some knowledge of chemistry, he opened the floor in several places in the upper stories of his house, and set therein vessels containing sulphuric acid, black - oxide of manganese and common salt, and aferward closed down the boards. The result was a slow chemical decomposition and recombining of elements, in the progress of which the heavy, stifling gas chlorine was disengaged. This penetrated all; the open spaces)] down to the cellar. A few breaths of the poisonous atsmosphere served to convince the rats that danger was brewing. Seizing a portion of whatever plunder was at hand, every nit rushed from the premises,; sneezing and weeping copisously from having inhaled the noxious chlorine. It was months before a single one ventured to return.