PERFORMING RATS AND FROGS. 169 



this may be adorned at each end by a balancing flag or bit of 

 ribbon. The real '^ balancer," however, is the animal'a tail, 

 which he will wriggle from side to side to preserve hiseqiiilibriuin. 



In the summer of 1867 one of the most attractive of the out- 

 door shows exhibited in Paris was that of ^' the man of rats,'' 

 well known to the inhabitants of the Quartier Mont Parnasse, 

 where he has held his headquarters for the last thirty year?. 

 The name of this Harey of the rat race is Antome Leonard. If 

 the former succeeded in breaking in the worst tempered brute 

 ever created, Leonard in three weeks certainly accomplished 

 the difficult task of cultivating habits of oljedience in the biggest 

 rats that ever ran. His favorite scenes of action are some cross 

 alleys in the 14th and 15th Arondissement. His sole theater is 

 a sort of perch which he sticks into the ground, and then he 

 takes his corps de ballet out of his pocket. At his word of 

 command the rats run up and down the perch, hang on three 

 legs, then on two, stand on their heads, and in fact go through 

 a series of gymnastic exercises that would put Blondin himself 

 to the blush. His crack actor is a gray rat that he has had in his 

 troupe for eleven years. This old fellow not only obeys Leon- 

 ard, but is personally attached to him. It is a most curious 

 sight to see Leonard put him on the ground, and then walk 

 away. The creature runs after him, and invariably catches him 

 however many turns he m^ay make to avoid him. An English- 

 man offered fifty francs for him about two years ago, but Leonard 

 would not separate from his old and attached friend. 



Some time ago, in passing through Beekman street, in this 

 city, our attention was attracted by quite a large crowd gazing 

 intensely at the telegraph wires which pass through ih.^ street. 

 Following the example of the rest, we at last discerned, high 

 up on the topmost wire, a mouse, that was running along evi- 

 dently in search of some safe descent from his novel position. 

 It seems that some boy had caught him, and the fact that the 

 wires in that vicinity pass close to the windows of the buildings, 

 had, doubtless, suggested the idea of placing him thereon. 

 Whether the mouse would have persevered and traveled on to 

 Albany, thus furnishing an example of sending articles by tele- 

 graph, it is impossible to say, for some person at a window 

 within reach of the wire, by vigorous shaking, succeeded in dis- 

 lodging him, and he fell to the ground among a crowd of boys 

 who were eagerly waiting to receive him. In the scramble that 

 followed he was captured, and borne off in triumph by a news- 

 boy. 



A shrewd dodge is related by a New York paper of a 

 certain saloon keeper, who has been greatly annoyed by per- 



