never gave a guarantee to clear a place completely, in Manchester or any
other town where so many large buildings are so close together. And let
me show the reason for this. Take Cannon Street, Manchester, as an
illustration. Here are six or eight different firms in one block of
buildings. Now, suppose four of these firms are suffering from the
damage the Rats are doing. Well, one or two of these firms may go to the
expense of having the Rats cleared away. But between the two buildings
there may be a hardware business or ironmonger's shop, where Rats cannot
do any 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