A PLAGUE OF MAD RATS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10419, 17 April 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PLAGUE OF MAD RATS.

THE PEOPLE IN PANIC. The town of Turcoing, near Lille, is stricken with s plague of mad rats. Consternation fills the little town, and many of its inhabitants have fled to Lille for shelter. In that portion of the lower town included in the triangle made by Hie juuction of the Rue de Iα Pau and the Buo d'Jite hundreds of rate are running wild from cellar to cellar and from garret to garret in the agonies of hydrophobia and snapping at their fellow rodents and at every living thing in their path. In the Pasteur Institute here in Lillo, Eugene Tiboro, bitten by a rat, died a miserable death from hydrophobia. M. Masse, tho proprietor of a cafe at No. 45, Rue de la Paix, hired Eugene Tiboro, a professional ratcatcher, to come to the cafe with liia two terriers and ferrets and rid the placo of the rats that infested it. The next morning the ratcatcher turned his ferrets loose in the attic and hastened into the cellar with his dogs to kill the rate aa they left the hole-. Tiboro noticed that the rats were escaping from one of his dogs, which merely snapped at them, without biting. At first Tiboro thought this due to the large number of rats confusing the dog. He spoke sharply to it without avail. Then he slapped the dog with hie hand. The animal turned upon him and buried ita teeth in hia wrist. The ratcatcher shook him off, and the dog, now seeming to be stirred with frenzy, dashed around the cellar snapping at the rate and finally eeizsd the other dog by the neck. Tiboro, now thoroughly alarmed, beat a hasty retreat up the cellar stairs. When he reached tho top he closed the door and called for M. Masse. He showed his bleeding wrist to Maese, and hastily told him his fear that the dog was rabid and that there were at that moment in the cellar perhaps hundreds of mad rats. The two men started to leave the place to call the police. As they opened the door a rat dashed past them and disappeared up the drain that led to the adjoining house. Masse ran to alarm his family, while Tiboro ran to the hospital. The physicians cauterised and bandaged his wound, but advised him to go at once to the Institute Pasteur at Lille. He went. Unmistakable signs of hydrophobia appeared, and Tiboro, the ratcatcher, gnashed his teeth and bit at those around him even as the rabid rats are squealing end snapping in the Rue de la Paix.

The alarm spread through the Rue de la Paix, and adjoining streets. Tho people cried " Mad rut! mad rat!" So great was the excitement that a panic ensued, and people began to leave their homes forgetting everything in their flight. Aβ the day passed the consternation increased, and the appearance of a rat in the Rue cl'Ete caused a complete exodus from that neighbourhood. When night camo there was not a human being in any of the houses in the quarter. Families were encamped upon the old Place d'Armes at the head of the Rue de la Paix, where food and bedding was given them by the readouts of the district. The Mayor hurriedly called the council to assemble They could accomplish nothing, and Doctor Vilnne, of the Institute Pasteur at Lille, waa sent (or. Huge tubs containing a solution o , arsenic and water were distributed throughout the infested district, and policeinon poured the poison down the drain pipes leading into the gutters of the streets. Next morning a number of dead rat." were found in tho Rue de la Paix. Dr. Vilnne, after he had submitted their entrails to an analysis, pronounced their deaths to be due to the arsenic. This news was received with great joy by the municipal authorities, who redoubled their efforts to quiet the excited populace. in the meantime the town of Turcoing presents the appearance of a siege, the infested district is kept in strict quarantine by the gendarmes, who patrol tho streets day and night.