The Lizzie Borden Society archive

Life in Victorian America

Forum URL:

http://lizzieandrewborden.com/LBForum/index.php
Forum Title: LIZZIE BORDEN SOCIETY
Topic Area: Life in Victorian America
Topic Name: Rats!

1. "Rats!"
Posted by augusta on Jan-12th-02 at 8:14 PM

This comes from "More Cunning than Man" by Robert Hendrickson, 1988, Dorset Press:

"At ratting matches, popular in America and Europe until they were outlawed in the early 1900's, dogs were pitted against rats to see which dog could kill the most rats in the shortest time."

"For the record, the most vaunted rat killer among dogs was a bullterrier bitch named Jenny Lind (after the "Swedish Nightengale"), who killed 500 rats in 1 1/2 hours at an arena called "The Beehive" in Liverpool, England in 1853.  The British bullterrier, "Jocko", killed 1000 rats in 1 hour 40 minutes, but the feat was performed over a period of ten weeks in 1852, Jocko loosed upon 100 rats at a time, which wasn't exactly cricket.  One benefit of the sickening ratting contests was the breeding of albino rats (used because the blood showed better on them), which were eventually put to use in scientific laboratories."

"During the 1870's and 1880's, American newspapers were full of stories about prize rat-killing dogs, or, where rat fights were illegal, about police raids on private homes, pubs, or stables where scores of people were arrested and great numbers of rats and dogs confiscated."

Then follows an article from the sports page of an 1878 New York Times featuring two dogs named Flora and (sorry) Harry.  They say Flora is "a white bull-and-terrier slut".  Is that an old-fashioned term for a female dog?? 


2. "Re: Rats!"
Posted by dave rehak on Jan-13th-02 at 2:59 PM
In response to Message #1.

LOL. A slut? I thought she was a bitch LOL!!!!!

Ah, rats! Too bad I wasnt around for those dog vs. rat matches


3. "Re: Rats!"
Posted by Harry on Jan-13th-02 at 3:25 PM
In response to Message #1.

Thanks Augusta for that article.  I had never heard of that before. It sent me scurrying to the web to look up ratting.

So a good one was named "Harry"? 



 

Navagation

LizzieAndrewBorden.com © 2001-2008 Stefani Koorey. All Rights Reserved. Copyright Notice.
PearTree Press, P.O. Box 9585, Fall River, MA 02720

 

Page updated 12 October, 2003