RATS—MICE—FROGS—TOADS—FLEAS, ETC.  
Rats generally are not favorites. There seems to be born in the human race a natural antipathy to these animals, and the preference with most persons would be rather to exterminate them than to attempt to tame them. Still rats may be tamed, though it must be confessed they are rather unattractive subjects, their odor being disgusting and their bite poisonous, probably from particles of putrid flesh adhering to their teeth—in many recorded cases fatally so.
Probably most readers have heard the story of the Frenchman, we forget his name, who was doomed to expiate some political offense in a dungeon cell; and how, to relieve the dreary loneliness and torturing monotony of his solitary existence, he strove to win the confidence of a rat which stole timidly forth from some crevice to pick up the crumbs dropped by the prisoner from his frugal meals. By slow degrees he labored to achieve his purpose, dropping a few crumbs on the floor and waiting motionless till the animal had come from his retreat and taken them; then, as the rat’s timidity gave way under the influence of this kindness, the man enticed him to eat from his hand, to climb up his leg into his lap, and by-and-by to permit himself to be handled, until at last the rat would nestle in the man’s bosom, come at his call, and in many ways display his affections for his master.
Mice are less ferocious than rats, more easily managed, and also make better performers, if it is desired to teach them tricks. The process of training is the same with both. In securing your captive, a trap which does it no injury should be used. To say nothing of the cruelty, an animal that is partially disabled or suffering pain, is not in a condition to learn well. The best traps are those in which wires are so arranged as to permit an easy entrance while they present an array of sharp points to prevent an exit.
The first thing after the capture is to tie a piece of fine but strong twine to the captive’s tail. This may be done without removing from the trap, or a wire or tin cage; he should be kept until so far tamed that he will not attempt to gnaw the string and escape when taken from his prison. During this time he should be well treated, supplied with food and water, and in no way irritated or alarmed. At the end of a day or so he may be allowed to come out upon a table, while the string 167which retains him is held securely. He will, probably, run around to examine the locality and then make an attempt to escape. At this point he must be gently but firmly drawn back, and we would advise that the first lesson consist merely in teaching him the uselessness of these attempts. At the next lesson a light wand, of willow or other wood, about twenty inches long, should be provided. Shortening the confining string so as to have your animal “well in hand,” you make him travel back and forth across the table in a straight line several times, guiding him by placing your wand in his way whenever he swerves from the correct course. Then make him go in a circle, then along a piece of board, or books laid on an edge, and any other convenient exercises to habituate him to follow your guidance. Remember, in doing this, that your object is to teach him—not to torment him. This wand is the real key to the performances of rats and mice. Though, these animals, doubtless, possess considerable sagacity, nearly all the tricks we have ever seen them perform have been mere obedience to the guidance of the exhibitor; so that when your pupil will go in the desired direction at the slightest hint with your wand, the main part of his training is accomplished, and you have only to arrange various little tricks in which the obedience will come in play.
By placing an obstacle in his way of such a shape as he cannot readily climb over, and urging him forward, he may be taught to leap; soon little hoops of wire or wood may be held for him to jump through, and these may be raised gradually with successive lessons until he will spring a considerable distance into the air to go through them. During all the time of training it should be your object to tame your pupil and inspire him with confidence in you; this will enable you eventually to remove the string which secures him, and so add to the credit of your exhibition. He should also be accustomed to take food from your hand or from the point of a bit of stick. This will serve as the foundation of many amusing tricks. Thus a small piece of cheese may be placed on the end of a string or wire so arranged that the removal of the cheese will cause a little bell to ring or produce some other pleasing effect. After the first few lessons with this arrangement, in which the mouse will have become accustomed to securing his food in this way, the cheese may be simply rubbed on sufficiently to induce him to bite at it. He should at first be guided up to it with the wand and tapped gently under his chin to induce him to rise and seize it. A variation of this is the trick of carrying articles in his mouth. First give him some article thoroughly smeared with cheese; the 168desire to secure the cheese will make him take it; then by urging and guiding him with your wand you can make him carry it about; being loth to relinquish the cheese, he will retain the whole. The amount of this bait used may be gradually diminished. By-and-by he may be made to convey little articles to and fro between two persons seated at opposite sides of the table. To do this, as well as for general convenience, it is well to accustom your pupil to come to you at some particular sound. This may be either the snapping of the finger nails or some slight noise of the mouth. It is easily done by making the noise, and, at the same time, pulling him toward you by the string attached to his tail. When he reaches you reward him with a morsel of cheese or bread, and repeat from day to day until he will come upon hearing the call.
Rats or mice may be used as motive powers to operate little models of machinery. This requires no training, as they are merely placed in a tread-mill contrivance, and being kept there their weight causes the works to move and compels the animal to keep up the motion.
 
RAT AS A MOTIVE POWER.
A little performance, a la Blondin, may be arranged for your mouse by stretching a piece of wire sufficiently stout to afford him a firm foothold, from two posts, about a foot in hight, fastened into a board. The ends of the wire may be at an angle, and also be secured to the board. Being guided by your wand up the slanting wire upon the main one, the dexterity with which he will run about upon it is quite surprising. If he has been already taught to hold things in his mouth he may be given a piece of wood, about the thickness of an ordinary friction match and twice its length, to represent a balancing pole, and 169this may be adorned at each end by a balancing flag or bit of ribbon. The real “balancer,” however, is the animal’s tail, which he will wriggle from side to side to preserve his equilibrium.
In the summer of 1867 one of the most attractive of the outdoor shows exhibited in Paris was that of “the man of rats,” well known to the inhabitants of the Quartier Mont Parnasse, where he has held his headquarters for the last thirty years. The name of this Rarey of the rat race is Antoine Leonard. If the former succeeded in breaking in the worst tempered brute ever created, Leonard in three weeks certainly accomplished the difficult task of cultivating habits of obedience in the biggest rats that ever ran. His favorite scenes of action are some cross alleys in the 14th and 15th Arondissement. His sole theater is a sort of perch which he sticks into the ground, and then he takes his corps de ballet out of his pocket. At his word of command the rats run up and down the perch, hang on three legs, then on two, stand on their heads, and in fact go through a series of gymnastic exercises that would put Blondin himself to the blush. His crack actor is a gray rat that he has had in his troupe for eleven years. This old fellow not only obeys Leonard, but is personally attached to him. It is a most curious sight to see Leonard put him on the ground, and then walk away. The creature runs after him, and invariably catches him however many turns he may make to avoid him. An Englishman offered fifty francs for him about two years ago, but Leonard would not separate from his old and attached friend.
Some time ago, in passing through Beekman street, in this city, our attention was attracted by quite a large crowd gazing intensely at the telegraph wires which pass through the street. Following the example of the rest, we at last discerned, high up on the topmost wire, a mouse, that was running along evidently in search of some safe descent from his novel position. It seems that some boy had caught him, and the fact that the wires in that vicinity pass close to the windows of the buildings, had, doubtless, suggested the idea of placing him thereon. Whether the mouse would have persevered and traveled on to Albany, thus furnishing an example of sending articles by telegraph, it is impossible to say, for some person at a window within reach of the wire, by vigorous shaking, succeeded in dislodging him, and he fell to the ground among a crowd of boys who were eagerly waiting to receive him. In the scramble that followed he was captured, and borne off in triumph by a newsboy.
A shrewd dodge is related by a New York paper of a certain saloon keeper, who has been greatly annoyed by persons 170who sit about in chairs to sleep off the effects of bad whiskey. He has caught and tamed several rats, and trained them to run across the floor. A sitter wakes up and sees the rats running, and calls attention to the fact, when he is told there are no rats there. This frightens the man, who thinks he has got the tremens, and he quickly disappears from the saloon.
Frogs are made pets of in some countries. In Vienna may be seen gilt cages containing small frogs of a pretty green color, which are kept in drawing rooms, and amuse by their gambols. Curious stories are told of the domestication of the tree-frog, which is a native of warm countries. It is said of Dr. Townson, that he had two pet frogs of this variety. He kept them in a window, and appropriated to their use a bowl of water, in which they lived. They grew quite tame; and to two which he had in his possession for a considerable time, and were particular favorites, the doctor gave the names of Damon and Musidora. In the evening they seldom failed to go into the water, unless the weather was cold and damp; in which case they would sometimes abstain from entering it for a couple of days. When they came out of the water, if a few drops were thrown upon the board, they always applied their bodies as close to it as they could; and from this absorption through the skin, though they were flaccid before, they soon again appeared plump. A tree-frog, that had not been in the water during the night, was weighed and then immersed; after it had remained half an hour in the bowl, it came out, and was found to have absorbed nearly half its own weight of water. From other experiments, it was discovered that these animals frequently absorbed nearly their whole weight of water, and that, as was clearly proved, by the under surface only of the body. They will even absorb water from wetted blotting-paper. Sometimes they will eject water with considerable force from their bodies, to the quantity of a fourth part or more of their weight. Before the flies had disappeared in the autumn, the doctor collected for his favorite tree-frog, Musidora, a great quantity as winter provision. When he laid any of them before her she took no notice of them, but the moment he moved them with his breath she sprang upon and ate them. Once, when flies were scarce, the doctor cut some flesh of a tortoise into small pieces, and moved them by the same means; she seized them, but the instant afterward rejected them from her tongue. After he had obtained her confiden............