Show THE RAT PLAGUE doleful accounts continue to be published from many parts parte of the cou country of the destruction and I 1 liaboe lavoe wrought by rate the wily rodent has come this time in battalions but it is hoped he has not come to stay in england it is the eastern counties which are chiefly suffering and it is the east coast of scotland also which has been most largely afflicts afflic tJ d but the plague is spreading spite of all ajl that man ca cabi u i do aided toy by do hogsand dog gsand sanu a rmel with steel traps guns snaring nets and poison the rat is marching victoriously onwards and finds plenty of new worlds to conquer crewe for instance has been judicially proclaimed as a rat haunted place 1 the fen district of lin co lushire coln shire is rat haunted and rat desolated most pitiful accounts are given of the ruin and disaster brought upon some of the farmers in that region the omnivorous rodent makes for the various crops in succession the pot to and mangold have now been attacked attached and the young plants in the field such as wheat and beans are seriously eaten away so far no pied piper has appeared on OD the scene but a french chemist has written to the mayor of lincoln offering to come over and exterminate the vermin if the chemist will accept paa payment ment by results the despairing farmers of this and other districts F should bould lose no time in opening negotiations what the frenchmans French mans method may be of course no one knows that is his secret and he jealously guards it to be successful however it will have to be something out of the common all the old cures and traps have been tried in vain the gamekeeper has bag gone too far in destroying the rats rat 16 natural enemies and artificial foes have hitherto failed to supply the deficiency pasteur undertook to rid australia of rabbits by scattering disease broadcast among those destructive creatures not unlike ly the french chemist who is anxious to emulate the fame of the piper of hamelin is a disciple of pasteur and hopes by poisonously inoculating a few of the rodents to carry a deadly e ep demic into their ranks liverpool echo |