FUN WITH MAPS ISSUE 2024-135

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (July 22, 2024) – In this edition of Fun with Maps we honor those who help us rid ourselves of dirty rats.

EXTERMINATE TODAY AND CELEBRATE TOMORROW

Today we are celebrating Ratcatcher’s Day, in honor of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.  The date July 22, 1376 is used in the Robert Browning poem, but some towns in Germany celebrate on June 26, 1284 which is the date mentioned in the Brothers Grimm fairytale.

Either way, it’s up to us to say thank you to the exterminators who do the filthy job of ridding us of pests, because if we don’t… Well you know how the story goes…

The people of Hamelin hired this eccentric oddly-dressed stranger to rid their town of its ever increasing overpopulation of rats.  He showed up and led the rats away, following him and the tune he played on his flute, to the river where they all drowned.

But when the city refused to pay the piper for his work, he returned to play his hypnotic tune once again, and this time it was the children who followed him.  Depending on which version you prefer to believe, either he kept the children until paid or the children were never seen again.

It wasn’t until 1894 that a spring-operated rat trap was patented, and the ratcatchers became figures of the past.

Hamelin is a small city located in Lower Saxony, in northern portion of Germany.  This map of Lower Saxony is by Cary from 1803.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.