A week before the start of a countywide effort to begin exterminating rats in March 1947, W. J. Morris, left, and John J. Stillinger of the Arnold Exterminator Co. showed off 100 rats they killed in downtown Lexington businesses in 48 hours. The two men said they killed the rats with 1080, the most effective rat poison then on the market. Lexington officials acknowledged that there was a rat problem and that rats caused $500,000 worth of damage a year. The Fayette County Farm Bureau rat-extermination campaign was to take place March 14-15. Published in the Herald-Leader on March 2, 1947. Herald-Leader Archive Photo