90 



USEFULNESS OF CATS. 



with rats, to say nothing of mice. In this matter man's 

 best friend is the cat. Silent, careful, cautious, and sure, 

 it is at work, while the owner sleeps, with an industry, a will, 

 and purpose that never rests nor tires from dewy eve till 

 rosy morn, when it will glide through " the cat hole " into 

 the barn for repose among the straw, and when night comes, 

 forth again ; its usefulness scarcely imagined, much less 

 known and appreciated. 



They who remember old Fleet Prison, in Farringdon 

 Street, will scarcely believe that the debtors there confined 

 were at times so neglected as to be absolutely starving ; so 

 much so, that a Mr. Morgan, a surgeon of Liverpool, being 

 put into that prison, was ultimately reduced so low by 

 poverty, neglect, and hunger, as to catch mice by the 

 means of a cat for his sustenance. This is stated to be 

 the fact in a book written by Moses Pitt, "The Cries 

 of the Oppressed," 1691. 



