A Midnight Tragedy
source date: 1889
availability: public-domain

A Midnight Tragedy “Last May,” says Judge Darrow in Field and Farm, “I was traveling in Arizona, and stopped in a little town called Emerson over night. The hotel was small but the best the town afforded, and I signed my name on the register. As it was late when I arrived I went immediately to bed. Being tired I fell asleep very soon after touching the pillows. How long I slumbered I can’t tell, but I was suddenly awakened by a terrible rumpus, which seemed to come from one corner of the room. I rose, and striking a match, I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw a large rat engaged in mortal combat with a bedbug. I immediately got straddle of the headboard of the bed and watched the fight. Standing on his hand legs, the bug would clasp the rat with its fore legs and squeeze it till the poor thing would run out its tongue and squeal like a pig. I watched the struggle about fifteen minutes when exasperat- ed at the cruel treatment of the rat by the bed- bug, I climbed down from my perch and catch- ing up a chair threw it at the fighters. This drew the attention of the bug from the rat and allowed him to escape into his hole. After a while I managed to get the chair out of the grip of the bug and killed it. I had the skin stuffed and took it home. The bug weighed two pounds and a quarter, and had claws three inches long.