He had a cart then with rats painted on the panels, and at the tailboard, where he stood lecturing he had a kind of stage rigged up, on which were cages filled with rats, and pills, and poison packages. Black was in the streets of London, at the corner of Hartstreet, where he was exhibiting the rapid effects of his rat poison, by placing some of it in the mouth of a living animal. He enjoys the reputation of being, the most fearless handler of rats of any man living, playing with them-as one man expressed it to me-“as if they were so many blind kittens.” In the sporting world, and among his regular customers, the Queen‘s rat catcher is better known by the name of Jack Black. I had already had a statement from the royal bug-destroyer relative to the habits and means of exterminating those offensive vermin, and I was desirous of pairing it with an account of the personal experience of the Queen of England‘s rat catcher. “Jack” Black, whose hand-bills are headed: As I wished to obtain the best information about rat and vermin destroying, I thought I could not do better now than apply to that eminent authority “the Queen‘s rat catcher,” and accordingly I sought an interview with Mr.
