Willie and three other brats

Willie and three other brats,
Ate up all the Rough-On-Rats*,
Papa said, when Mama cried,
“Don’t worry, dear, they’ll die outside.”

– University of California Pelican

Published in the Los Angeles Herald, March 11, 1906 under the article title “Vicious College Humor”

*”Rough-On-Rats” was a well known rat poison. This poison was greatly favored by those who wished to be relieved of annoying relatives — either by adding a dose to said relative’s tea or to one’s own.

And as you’ll notice from the advertisement below, one of the features of this particular poison was that, when used on rats, the poisoned animals “die outside.”

From Deluxx’s photostream on Flickr