Seventy-five Turtles Clawing and Chawing Each Other for an Hour.
    The seventy-five turtles in the fountain basin near the Fourth avenue entrance to Gilmore’s Garden, had a battle yesterday morning. Such was never seen before. At least seventy-five lay together in an apparently inextricable mass on the bottom of the basin. Two dead turtles floated on the surface of the water.
    “Stir ’em up,” said Gilmore and taking ex-Judge Dittenhoefer’s cane he plunged it into the very centre of the mass. Seventy-five long necks craned upwards, seventy-five great mouths opened wide, seventy-five little snake tails stood upright-but for a moment only. Then the fight was resumed. A queer hiss escaped from each one. Then with head cautiously peering from the shell the turtles rammed at each other. Now and then one seized another by the leg and chewed it.
    “Stop ’em,” shouted Hamiton, “the things cost a dollar apiece.
    “Nonsense,” said Shook, let ’em fight it out. It’s worth more than a dollar apiece to see ’em.
    Presently it seemed as if there were two parties, led by two extra-large turtles. Each party quietly moved toward a side of the basin. Then they splashed the water with their snake-like tails, and then with a volley of hisses the entire phalanx from either side, pushed rapidly toward the center. The two bodies came together near the base of the fountain, and for two or three minutes there was a lively mouth to mouth and shell to shell fight, at the end of which all sunk together to the bottom of the basin.
    This went on for nearly an hour, in which time half a dozen little fellows were killed, and the leader of one of the sides-known to many frequenters of the garden as “Big Bliss”-of one of the sides lost one of his claws.-New York Sun.
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