ider
expense, though of course there are others who are just the opposite.

Further, Rat-catching is a business in which one is not called upon to
allow credit. It is all a ready-money trade, and as there is not much
competition, the Rat-catcher can command a good price for his work. He
has always one resource open to him when he has finished a job according
to contract (catching say 40 or 50 Rats), should there be a dispute about
the price and the people decline to pay the bill, then he has the
expedient of letting the Rats at liberty again in the place where he had
caught them. Most people will pay the price you send in rather than have
the Rats turned loose again.

Although I am showing how the Rat-catcher can always have the advantage
of stubborn payers, I may as well assure my readers that in all my
experience such an occurrence as the above has never happened with me,
simply because I always make my arrangements beforehand, which course I
always find the best and most satisfactory all round.

Another matter I may mention. If any one could find out a sure way of
catching Rats so that he could give a guarantee to clear large buildings,
my opinion is that he would make a fortune in a very short time; for I
know firms in Manchester alone that would pay almost any amount to be rid
of the Rats; not only because of what they consume, but more for the
damage they do to their goods.

I have referred to the Rat-catcher obtaining good pay. The reason he
commands such a big price for his work at the present time is because
there is not much sale for live Rats. The trade is not what it was some
years ago when Rat-pits were allowed. I think it was one of the worst
things they ever did for this country when the authorities stopped the
Rat pits, for when Rat killing was allowed in pits, it was a common thing
for a Rat-catcher to receive an order for 100 Rats, all to be killed at
one time; then the Rat-catcher would get the Rats and wherever he got
them from he was ridding that district of a nuisance. But when the
authorities stopped Rat-pits and Rat-coursing, the consequence was that
the Rat-catcher left the Rats to breed in thousands. Rats being vermin,
I don't see why they should not be killed 50 or 100 at a time in the pit,
but the Humane Society maintain that it is cruelty to dogs to put them in
a pit with a lot of Rats. I don't see where the cruelty comes in, but
from what I have seen of Rat-pits during my time