ratting was a popular circa 1900 sport in which an angry dog or ferret was placed in a pit with starved rats and honest folk placed wagers on who should prove the victor

good clean fun

in 1905, in a certain new york bar, a particularly large and vital rat leapt upon a champion rottweiler and tore out its throat. enraged that the champion was dead the audience leapt into the pit and proceeded to brawl - most of the remaining rats were rendered dead but quite quickly rumors began to circulate that the monster rat had escaped... the city ratters soon came to refer to the creature as queen molly, after a notorious madam of the city of the time. many ratting establishments soon drew in large crowds by promising an appearance by the notorious queen molly lol

although most champion ratters were dogs, one ferret is known to have become a popular champion, killing up to 20 rats in an hour - a score equal to that of the best dog ratters of the day! this was jocko, a european polecat owned by an immigrant known only as the hungarian

jocko and queen molly never actually fought to my knowledge, but here's a fanciful impression of what it would have looked like if they had lol