THE MOUSE AT WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 98, 25 April 1917, Page 2

THE MOUSE AT WAR

IN THE INVADED COUNTRY

Fable has told us how the tiny mouse liberated the ensnared Hon. That wae the work of ohe mouse. Contemplate it with the destructive capacity and achievements of the plague of myriads of these übiquitous little creatures which have for weeks overrlm the Rivefina, Victoria, and South Australia. In the mammoth wheat stacks especially they have wrought enormous damage. Their progression (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph) is that of a devastating army. On the plentitude of food everywhere at hand they have increased and multiplied and flourished exceedingly, until literally in parts they fill the land. Just how overmastering a plague of mice can be is realistically pictured by a correspondent in a farming district in South Australia. The story could with equal vividness be applied to the experience of non-plussed settlers in. parts of this State, where the invasion is being waged on the lines of a relentless general offensive. The mice, like the Egyptian plague of old (says the correspondent), are having a hardening effect on the hearts and morals of the people,, causing them to speak arid act in sundry ways and diveje manners of which they formerly had no conception. Men whose bloodthirsty proclivities ha,ve hitherto been rigidly held in check by the Stern and time honoured command, "Thou shalt n^v' kill," are now vieiug with each" othel-/' records of slaughter and lurid adjectives.. and tender-hearted women are develop* ing remarkably firm pnd killing waya. The good old family broom is the chief weapon of offence in their case, and small wonder either when best bonnets and fancy sun/shades can no longer be exhibited as triumphs or artistic skill,., but merely as remnants of cruel work. Every conceivable device for luring fhc enemy to its dwn destruction is daily, md nightly in use, and still they come! The old order of things lias been re versed and now the mice not only play when the cats are away, hiit actually play with the cats—play all over them 'and around them, chew their little ears, and. playfully nibble the tender "tips of their tails. And the unfortunate cats have become so scared and disgusted that they now, whenever possible, roost in trees, and have taken, to eating grass I and noxious "weeds, Having devoured most of the household goods, including carpets, enrtains, and doormats, the mice have developed a remarkable taste for literature, with a strong preference for comic songs, and, strange to say, they are attempting to give voice to those inwardly * digested compositions; and although their vocal productions are not of a high order, it is not unusual to hear them singing as they work through the by no means silent watches of the night. Children are almost afraid to go to bed except in monseprdof cota,' and the smaller ones have mostly to be preserved in. glass jars during the night. Wheat stacks are badly riddled, and some of them show signs of a coming collapse, in anticipation of which the mice aro unusually busy making' wheat pools in the yards. Haystacks are simply alive, and if. would not be at all surprising to see/a, battalion of stacks' moving off any dark night. Fruit, tomatoes, and melons' art ho more (in fact, ■ very much less than they were); but the liardy cucumber has scored a win, and again proved fed a demonstration that it is not to be trifled with. Scores of mice were found lying dead around a half-eaten cucumber, ana a amall pack that had sampled a jar of pickled onions scaxed and stampeded a whole tarn full of their' fellow-workers frith ths hightoned flavour of their breath.

The highly respected head of a family the other evening killed the fatted pig to save it from' a worse fate, but mostly in anticipation of the return of somo family prcfdigals who were eipected back for the holidays. The dead porker was hung on high, and to minimise the risk of losing -ftis bacon the head of the establishment undertook to watch by the gallows tree all night. Like niany another 1 good-intentioned man, however, he slept at his post, and, waking up with the roosters, found mice running all over him, and,one leg of his pants, a sleeve of his coat, his Hat, arid most of his hair and eyebrows missing. The rope had been chewed asunder, and the remains of the far-flung pig seemed more alive than ever. A few nights ago the mice were seen to shift a lady's fully laden dress basket, a feat which usually tests the strength, of a hill-grown man. But their greatest achievement undoubtedly was sticking up the train at the Woods Siding the dther night. This they did by sitting oti the' grails and daring it to go 1; and they seemed to derive considerable amusement from the fact that they had to be swept off before that great iron monster could get a move on. This partial stoppago of the wheels of industry doubtless will encourage them to try for even greater things than these, and further developments are anxiously awaited.