Till-: 1:AT I'Kor.LKM 177 



It lias Ix'cn said thai ' Ot" all lii^iiwavs a rat loves a drain 

 the best." Our wh(^]»' sclicinr oi' saiiilatinn depends upon tin* 

 prineiple of wasliini;* all liltli and disease germs into our sew- 

 ers. Here theu we have an animal which wallows and crawls 

 and swims in this iilth and nightly distributes it o\ cr ex[)osed 

 foods, merchandise, markets, and homes. In this wav lats mv 

 often responsible for })ersistent local epidemics of any disease 

 whose germs are washed into sewers, — ty[)hoid, di[)hthei'ia, 

 scarlet fever, and many others. These facts, together \\ith 

 common decency and intelligent cleanliness, are again sutli- 

 cient reasons for extermination of such iilthy pests. 



On all three counts, therefore, — gen(^ral destriu-tiveness, 

 carriers of i^hu-k death, distril)uters of disease and Iilth — 

 rats deserve absolute extermination. 'Iliey were formerly con- 

 sidered valuable as scavengers, but modern methods of sani- 

 tation are thwarted by them, and these have rendered their 

 further services in this line doubly tindesiral)le. 



The simple duty of every citizen is to exterminate the rats 

 from his own premises. Modern methods — traps, poisons 

 and })oisonous gases, concrete and rat-proof constrtiction — 

 render this entirely possii)le, and at a fraction of the cost 

 which the })resence of the pests yearly entails. 



.Ml methods of driving rats away, scattering them among 

 the neighbors, accomplish no real good and are l)esi(l{'s unci\ ic. 



Trapping is at once the safest and, for boys, the most edu- 

 cative method ol keeping a home free from rats. It is no iikhc 

 expensive and much moi'e interesting to ket^j) traps set all llie 

 time than t(j allow tlicm to be lying idle. If we could [\\v a 

 pistol that could 1)e heard across the contineid, and from that 

 day on have all the l)oys of the country kee[) all the idle rat 

 and mouse traps set and baite<l in the most liktdy places 

 about their homes all the time, the battle would be nine 

 tentlis won. Stores, mills, stables, factories, de[)ots, and 

 wharves could theu deal with their own ])roblems ctTectively 



