FIVE HUNDRED SILK BOBBINS CARRIED OF BY RATS.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 827, 11 August 1876, Page 3

FIVE HUNDRED SILK BOBBINS CARRIED OF BY RATS.

The ' Journal de Paxis' contains the following curious news from Bale : — Afc the lax-ge silk-spinning mill of Messrs Bolger and Bingwald, at Niederschoenthal, near Bale, every night for some length of time a certain numbex of silk bob bins have disappeared. The entx*ancea wei*e closely guarded in consequence, the workpeople searched, the police pxxt on the watch night and day, but the pilferings continued ; each night more bobbins wex*e carried off, in one night alone as many as 152. At last, when the number of bobbins missing x*eached to about 500, the abstractions ceased, and the mysterious manne-.* of their disappearance was almost forgotten. Last week, however, a workman engaged in impairing the ceiling discovered hidden between the cross planks a great number of rats' nests, veiy carefully arranged and comfortably stuffed with tbe silk from the stolen bobbins. The novel nest-builders descended and remounted by means of a transmission pulley, and as bobbins are awkward to carry, and the journey difficult to perform, none of the x*ats coxxld take more than one at a time, and nxixst have been busily employed the night they carried off 152. The news of the discovery of the mysterious thieves soon spread about the mill, and caused great delight and satisfaction to the workpeople, some of whom had naturally* been suspected of the silk pilferings.