harm to their goods. The owners of these shops will not go to the
expense of having Rats caught, nor will they let us go into their shops
at midnight; therefore the result is the Rat-catcher in his trapping and
ferreting is limited to these two places, and all he can do is to catch
some and drive the rest into the hardware shop. When under the floors in
such places one finds there has been so many alterations made at
different times that one joist may be a foot or six inches below the
other, and when the Rats are completely driven out of these places it
would require joiners and bricksetters to work for weeks under the floors
to stop the Rats returning. And most firms will not go to this expense.
I only give my readers this as an illustration of what has often happened
with me, and to show why I never guarantee to clear Rats completely in
large towns. If they are in a private house, stable, greenhouse, or any
block of houses, of say five or six, I might then, after looking through,
give a guarantee to clear them completely.

These are the fullest details I can give you, and if you will put any of
the ways I have mentioned into practice you will find that they are all
successful, especially the covering of traps. I can give you just one
more instance in Manchester, where I was engaged. The workpeople had
been tormenting the Rats with traps, not knowing how to set them. They
sent for me, and on my looking round the place I knew there was a lot of
Rats. I submitted my price to do the job, and when I went down one night
with 40 traps, dog, and two ferrets I thought I should catch 20 or 30
Rats, but I found that they had plagued them so much with their attempted
trapping that I only caught three in the whole night. This place
belonged to a limited company, and when I went before the committee the
next morning they were not satisfied. I told them that their own
workpeople had tormented the Rats so much with traps that the Rats would
not go near one. I then told the committee that I would still stick to
my terms, but I would leave the job over for a fortnight. Now during
that fortnight I went down a good many times, and laid the sawdust as I
have already described, and thus got the Rats used to it. The first
night that I went catching I took with me 33 traps. I had them all set
by 8-30 p.m., and by 12-30 a.m. I had trapped 45 Rats; the next night 31
Rats; and before I completed the job, with the trapping and the ot