LONDON RATS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2169, 13 August 1897, Page 6

LONDON RATS.

Here is a night-watchman's account of a rat ridden London wharf : " A devil of a lot t" cried Simmons, "well, I should say so; it's riddled with 'em; swarms with 'em. and to 'ear some watchmen you'd believe they chew np a ton or two of rice or a few odd bales of 'ay in a night, when its 'id on a barge. But there is millions of rats, and to 'ear 'em squeak and patter below the floors and on the floors, and running on the beams is a caution. It gets 'old of some men not used to it, and no wonder, for at times they're like black beetles, rollin' in 'eaps two feet thick and most 'orrid to look at. Do I mean they'd eat a man? Why, young feilow they'd eat a family, and I've a notion if grub fell short along the river they'd eat the whole of London, a blacy swarm of 'em in the streets. I reckon that ten hungry rats could pull a man down, and I believe there's more than ten rats in London for every soul in it But as long as there's cocoa and flour and grain along the river, and drains for 'em to run in, folks above don't see 'em, and they know nothin' of what's going on."