Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1896 — A WHARF RAT. [ARTICLE]

A WHARF RAT.

dne Seen in a Walk Along South Street.' “I had read about wharf rats, and heard about them often,” said a man.. ♦‘.The other day*l saw one. I was walking along South street, and I saw a Sound boat whose sailing hour was about due, and I, thought I’d like to see her start out. You couldn’t see much of her from the wharf at which she lay, on account ofi tlie pier shed; and so I Went round and down the wharf on the other side of the ship. The wharf Was bad the usual open-_ ihgs in tlie sides, and from one of them I got a good view of the boat I wanted to see, directly opposite at work taking on the last of the steamer’s load. Over there it was all activity} where I was (t was all quiet. There was no boat on either side, and only a truck, or two and three or four men on the wharf. “AA’hile I stood there in the broad opening looking at the boat and at the flags floating over it a rat apeared six ■or eight feet away, on that side of tlm opening toward the river end of the wharf; it came out from alongside of or under the stringpiece, where it was cut off so that the floor of the wharf might in tlie opening be unobstructed to the edge. ‘‘l don’t know how big wharf rats grow, but this was the biggest rat I evet saw; it was a big rat, ahd yet, big as it was, it didn’t seem monstrous; that is, it didn't seem like a rat of unusual size for the place, for it acted as though it belohged there and was perfectly familiar with the place and its surroundings. It was quick and smooth tc its movements, bnt not hurried. Tim instant it appeared it started across tlm opeuiug. It crossed in front of me, within a few jnches of where I stood, but without deviating from Its course, and disappeare<J under the correspond; ing end of the stringpiece on the other side. “In the prosencVof that rat I felt like a stranger. AVhere lie came from and where he was going I didn’t know, nor what his errand was, but it was plain enough from the ease and certainty with which he moved that he knew that wharf from bulkhead line to pierhead in every spile and brace, and probably he knows all South-street just as well, lie didn’t stop to look at the boat; he .wasn’t interested in it, as I was, for lie lives there and sees it every day.”New York Sun.