152 MORE MINOR HORRORS 



combatting the rabbit-plague of Australia — 

 killing all captured females and let all captured 

 males loose — is certainly worth a trial. Rats 

 will gnaw through concrete, but not if plenty 

 of pieces of broken glass be mixed with the 

 concrete. They will never cross a band of tar 

 which has been kept liquid by mixing with 

 grease. In the French trenches, special rat- 

 runs are dug and these are provided with 

 'live' wires. On touching one of these the 

 rat is electrocuted. 



In the eighteenth century, among the 

 officers of his ' Britannic Majesty,' was an 

 official rat-catcher, whose special uniform was 

 scarlet, embroidered in yellow worsted with 

 figures of field-mice destroying wheat-sheaves. 

 Inquiry at the Lord Chamberlain's office 

 has satisfied me that the officer still exists 

 and still catches rats, but I fear the uniform 

 has been abolished. However, a book has 

 recently appeared dealing officially and ex- 

 haustively with all matters of this kind, and 

 as soon as I can come by it, I will look the 

 matter up. Should this dignified uniform 

 have really disappeared, might not a humble 

 petition be presented that it be revived ? 

 Surely, never more than at the present time 

 should the honour and glory of the rat-catcher 

 be exalted ! 



