From the Hartford Courant.
We noticed the systematic attack made by rats in New Haven, on some children, each singling out his victim, and jumping with a simultaneous squeal upon the little girls playing in a yard. A little boy of two years was caught by the knee, and held until the child’s grandfather went to his assistance, and then, as the rat scorned to run, it had to be killed. Attempts had been made to poison these rats, with partial success, and it may have been in retaliation for their poisonous attempts that this concerted charge was made.
The rat is one of the most interesting animals on the globe. In Europe he marks historical eras-different hordes of invaders brought their peculiar rats in their train. Europe has seen the rats of the Goths, the Vandals and the Huns. Europe now has its Norman rat, and its Tartar rat, and the great rat of the Parisian Sewer is of recent date and Muscovite origin.
The brown rat, otherwise known as the Norman rat, has established itself all over the world, by the commerce of civilized times-it had possession of France for the last six or seven centuries, but within the last years it has found its master in the Muscovite and Tartar rat called in Paris the rat of Mountfaucon. These new rat’s, previously unknown to Europe, descended from the heights of the great central plateau of Asia, from which the Hun and Mongol horsemen descended, who spread right and left, and took possession of Rome on the one hand and Pekin [China] on the other.
The brown rat has almost disappeared in France and is found only in the cabinets of the curious collectors-while the Muscovite rat is daily increasing in size, ferocity, and courage. The Russian rat devours the dog, the cat, and attacks the child asleep. The corpse of a man is a dainty for this beast, and it always commences by eating out the eyes. Its teeth are most venomous; and the author from whom we derive most of this article, states that he has known of ten cases of amputation of the leg, necessitated by the bite of this rat.
The cat turns tail upon this rat, in its most ferocious state. A good terrier is the best destroyer, but fortunately rats are ratophagus, eat one another, fight duels, indulge in brawls and intense feuds, and grand destructive battles. Were it otherwise, they would make this world an unpleasant place for man to live in. We should have to fight our way, and not infrequently like the Archbishop of Mayence, should be dragged from our beds at midnight, by an army of rats, and devoured upon the spot.
The rat is an emblem of misery, murder, and rapine-a cannibal and a robber-devoted to the principle of war and spoliation. Will it ever disappear?
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