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The Survival of the Fittest.

     The fiercest beasts in the London Circus menagerie at the Hippodrome are the hyenas- the “grave-robbing hyenas” they have been called. They make more trouble than the lions and the tigers, fighting among themselves constantly; and when they engage in these combats they must be promtly separated or the stronger and younger beasts, frenzied by the taste of blood, will tear their companions to pieces and devour them. The vicious faces of all of them are scarred with old wounds, and bare spots on their bodies here and there show where the fur and hide have been ripped away by the sharp teeth of former adversaries.

     Yesterday, just  at the close of the matinee performance, four of the hyenas began a savage fight. They ripped, and clawed, and bit, rolling over one another in the cage, and filling the whole circus with discordant cries. Measures were at once taken to separate them, but Alfred Still, their master, not happening to be present at the moment, this was a matter of seemingly insurmountable difficulty. Weights of iron were hurled in through the bars of the cage, directly into the bunch of snarling, wrangling, beasts, but had no more effect on them than so many pellets of putty. Rods of iron, too, were run in, and the hyenas were wickedly prodded, but that did no good. The brutes had got the smell of blood, and it was only a question of the survival of the fittest, unless they could be speedily separted. The unearthly noise roused the other beasts in the menagerie, and the whole place was in uproar.

     Fortunately at this point the regular keeper arrived, the same young man who goes into the cage with the hyenas to perform with them. He got wind of the trouble and came prepared, holding in his two hands a heavy iron bar, the end of which had been heated to a white heat. He at once caused the door to be opened, and not hesitating an instant sprang into the cage and struck right and left with the white-hot iron-bar. For a moment there was a tremendous hissing and sineging as Still plied his weapon relentessly, and then the hyenas seperated. The conflict lasted ten minutes.-N. Y. World, Nov. 3rd.

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