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Show In 1815, when the vessel containing Xapolcon was about to sail for St. Helena, some waggish person in Chester, England, caused to be distributed in the town and surrounding country hand-billsstatingthat hand-billsstatingthat the island of St" Helena was so overrun by rats that without relief it would be impossible for the. captive emperor aud hjs guards to live there. This being the case, says the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, the government had determined to send out a shipload of eats, the ship to sail from Chester. On a certain appointed day the king's officer would be in the city and would pay sixteen shillings, about four dollars, for fullgrown toms, ten s! Tlings for female cats and and two shillings and sixpence for kittens old enough to feed themselves. The people of the surrounding country took the matter seriously, and on the day appointed thousands of eats were brought into Chester. The owners, finding find-ing they had been tricked, became angry, threw away their cats and started to sack the city hall. The police were unable to deter them and a riot ensued, in which a number of the townspeople w-ere injured by the infuriated country folk, who relished neither the jest nor the laughter at their expense. |