THE BUBONIC PLAGUE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11691, 26 March 1900, Page 9

THE BUBONIC PLAGUE.

",.■''.".J'1"') ."'"""-.■ *"M ..THE EDiTO'li;':' ' ' * ..'■ SlE,—The -bubonic plague has given rise to a, number of suggestions, but to Dr Ogston, who, on account of nine years', experience of epidemic, diseases'at Home, claims a right to1 i speak, we may award ' tlie palm.- We have been wagingl a. niighty war against rats, we have caught the martial spirit, we have'igiveii no quai-ter. Someone:. has suggested (not openly,- nofcin cold print) that our fourth con^ tingent .should be given a day. off in which to hunt the tiny foe. r: Biii;, alas! bur slaughter goes for nothing; we have been attacking I our greatest friends..: Thus tlie worthy; doctor: "Rats were our greatest friends, if .we knew how to regard them. When rats ap- [ peared in a, back yard or a stable it was be--1 cause, there was something for them to'live upon, and we should not kill the rats, but the something they live upon. ; . .' They should watch the rats- running about, and kill their food, for that would be going to the root of the matter." Kill their food!. What is their food? Few of us care to find out by the doctor's method—namely, watching fats running about. Any ordinary.housewife will tell us that the food pf the rats is. the food we are most fond of. ourselves—the contents- of our. .kitchen cupboards. Don Quixote once engaged.in combat two. windmills. Are we in like manner, sword in hand, to attack our -well-filled pantries? If not, how else is the fqoa of the rats to be killed?—l am, etc., ' r ''■ ■ 4 ■ *■- The Juggleb. Merton, March 16.