Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1898 — RID A TOWN OF RATS. [ARTICLE]

RID A TOWN OF RATS.

The Ingenious Scheme of a Maine Seaman. Nobody has seen or heard of a rat about Castine, Me., f Ince last summer, says the New York Sun. Ip July, when ' the whole town was overrun with rats ' and everybody was in a panic over their destructive work, a coasting ■ schooner came there for wood, and the ’ captain, sold Ben Wardell a receipt for killing the animals. For d week or two ' Wardell went from house to house selling a yellowish gray powder, which he offered to give away if it failed to de- ' stroy the pests. Then the rats began to die. Their bodies were found in outhouses and cellars and in ditches by the roadside. The smell was bad for a ■ time, but the rats were gone and not ' one has been seen since. The composition of the powder remained a secret until Wardell enlarged his business and ' began to sell it in other towns. The Castine druggist was naturally anxious 1 to know what killed the rats, and made note of the articles which Wardell bought. He never asked for any kind of poison, but the drug vender believed that he purchased more calcine plaster than any ordinary man had need of using. He mentioned it to Wardell one day, and the secret was out. The ratkilling powder was composed of Indian meal and calcine plaster in equal parts. The ruts ate the mixture for the meal it contained. Then they bad a great thirst. The water caused the mass to harden in the stomachs of the rats, after which their digestive functions ceased to operate and the rats starved to death.