Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1875 — What Rats Are Good For. [ARTICLE]

What Rats Are Good For.

Of what use is the rat to man? Well, not very much that we know of; yet a few items may be mentioned. Probably w T e must not attach much importance to the alleged prophetic power of the rat — that if he gnaws a person’s clothes, th at person will speedily die; that if he suddenly quits a house, the house will very shortly be burned down; that if he deserts a ship, the sliip is in a sinking state. A mill at Peebles was suddenly deserted by a whole colony of rats, about twenty years ago; two hours afterward the mill was burned down. But it must be sdid that the logic is verf weak which proves, from these facts, the possession of any prophetic power by Mr. Rat. W e have evidence that he has sometimes been made useful as an R. E. or an R. A. „ James, in his Military Dictionary, says: “ Rats are sometimes used in military operations, particularly in enterprises for the purpose of setting fire to gunpowder. On these occasions a lighted match is tied to the tail of the animal. Marshal Vauban recommends, therefore, that the walls of ponder magazines should be made very thick, and the passages for light and air so narrow as not to admit rats. We do not know whether a cruel sport can be called a useful employment of rats; but an account is given of a strange proceeding at Itome. A large number of rats were dipped in spirits of turpentine, set on fire, and made to rush down an open flight oi steps near the Vatican; they reached the bottom as masses of charred flesh, amid the shouts of the populace. Rats are worth three shillings a dozen to furnish a supply to those brutal ambitions in which raVkilling terriers show their power. Rats are also caught for the value of the skins. There is a firm m Paris which buys the skins for this purpose. The fur is dressed into a very good substitute for beaver, while .the pelt or membrane is dressed into leather so fine, elastic and close as to be useu for the thumbs of the best gloves. If anyone believes that rats are not used for human food lie must change his opinion. In Paris the chiffoniers or bonegrubbers eat them. Gypsies eat such rats as are caught in stacks and barns, and are less strong in flavor and odor than those that feed omnivorously. In China split rats are bought as a dainty. An English surgeon of some note had them cooked for eating. In a man-of-war, where the rats made havoc with the .biscuit, the sailors had a regular batttewnd brought down numbers of "them; Jack made rat-pie, baked it and liked it. At the siege of Malta Abe, French garrison, when famished, offered as much as a dollar a head for rats, or two dollars if barn-fed. During the siege of Paris, in the late Franoo-German war, many tasted rat who had never tasted ik before.— AU. the Year Round.