Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Friday, October 22, 1897
    Several fishermen at Highland Lake, near Middletown, N. Y., had an exciting experience with two immense snapping turtles recently. The turtles were engaged in a deadly combat fifty feet from shore and the men attempted to take them with hook and line. The fishermen summoned two companions to aid them, but the turtles fought vigorously and the men were defeated. The turtles then renewed the battle between themselves some distance from shore. The smaller of the two, weighing forty pounds, was finally captured and safely landed, but its adversary hastily made its escape. The captured turtle, the oldest and largest ever seen in the vicinity, was served in soup at one of the hotels the same night.-New York Herald.
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, June 7, 1901
    The pickpocket who tried to “pinch” a likely looking man’s pocketbook and found his fingers in the grasp of two snapping turtles was a Japanese. A native traveler in Japan had bought the turtles, and, being afraid that he would be charged heavily for their transportation as live animals on the train, he placed them in a small portable trunk he carried. When he got on the train he held the trunk so carefully under his arm that a thief who was in the crowd was sure the man had something valuable in the box. So he got into the same car and took an adjoining seat. Taking the first opportunity he cut a small hole in the trunk with a sharp knife and slipped in his hand.
    About this time the turtles concluded that there was “something doing” and they took hold of his fingers in a hearty way. Gritting his teeth, the thief tried to withdraw his hand, but he couldn’t. Then he howled and the owner of the trunk seized him and turned him over to the train people, who at the next station gave him to a policeman. The incident, however, wasn’t closed until the traveler was punished for violation of the railway regulations.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, November 14, 1885
    [Wong Chin Foo in Chicago News.]
    Turtle fighting is very common in the east, and I am surprised the sport has not been introduced into this country. It’s quiet, nice, and very satisfactory. Two kinds of the reptiles are good for fighting-the mud turtle and the snapper. The latter is quicker and more ferocious. Young and old ones are no good. The best run from seven to twenty pounds in weight, and are from 5 years upward. After being caught they are regularly trained. We feed them raw meat, raw fish, and a strong drug whose name I don’t know. To make their jaws strong and their eyes quick, we tease them twice a day with wooden sticks and with rags tied up to look like another turtle’s head. Then we fix up their jaws and teeth. We file them and fix them until they are sharp as the blade of a knife.
    A few month’s training is all they want. They’ll snap a pencil at a bite, or crush and bite through a bamboo in a minute or two. A week before a fight they should be teased every two or three hours and given red pepper on their food. They get crazy mad and will attack their trainer at every chance. When they are fighting we throw red pepper on their wounds to make them more savage. You want to be very careful, though, in training and fighting them, because they’ll snap at you every time. If they get hold of you a piece comes out or a finger comes off, and sometimes their bites are poisonous and the trainer dies.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, July 27, 1878
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.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, June 8, 1867
There is at a Nashville brewery a mammoth frog, weighing twelve pounds which is supposed to have attained his enormous size from the nourishment received from the health-giving beverage manufactured at that establishment. He is kept in the cellar, with no companions but his own thoughts, and drinks his regular allowance of lager, with all the apparent satisfaction and relish of a portly Mynheer of the olden time.
Sappho Turtle, Jailed for “No Soup” 12 Years Ago, Found Under City Scales.
Soup For Firemen.
    Police records from the dim ages past, dim because they are 12 years old, were exhumed today in the search for the history of Sappho, the snapping turtle that was dug out of the mud underneath the old city scales that are being removed from the police station.
    According to the records, which are meager and had to be completed by the oral testimony of Judge Walter A. Taylor and Police Captain Thomas Kennedy. Sappho was captured 12 years ago by the then assistant chief of police Thomas Tyrrel. She was a mere infant and was practically worthless as a “soup bone” so she was sentenced to a few years in the basement of the city jail.
    Uncomplaining, Sappho was taken to the basement cell and incarcerated in an old wash tub. But the police forgot to clip her toe nails and Sappho decided that the city jail was no place for a respectable female turtle so she crawled out and the police searched in vain for 12 long years. Their labors were rewarded yesterday when they located Sappho, a goodly growth of moss covering her hard shell back, hidden under the scales. She had grown to be quite a girl now and is destined to be soup for the fire department.
    The records show that she was jailed August 13, 1911, but no charge was preferred against her. Fearing trouble because of this, the police reporter started out to discover the reason for her being locked up. In Judge Taylor’s diary is the following notation:
    “August 13, 1911. Today sentenced Sappho Turtle to 10 years in the cooler on raw beefsteak. Complaint-no soup.”
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, March 4, 1910
    “The Shetland peasants, as soon as the cold comes on, turn their ponies out to shift for themselves,” said a horse dealer. “On those high, rocky, barren islands, amid the powerful and cold winds of winter, the ponies live on heather and seaweed, and it is indubitable that in their hunger they even scour the wild coast for dead fish. It is this life of exposure that gives the Shetland pony his shaggy coat. What gives him his kind and gentle disposition is the fact that he is brought up with the dogs and children-one might almost say in the house.”
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, August 5, 1910
Jenness Tried to Scare Animal but is Kicked from Machine.
    Logansport, Ind., Aug. 3.-Clyde Jenness took his sweetheart for a ride on his tandem motor cycle and seeing a mule standing in the roadway, he let on the gasoline and opened wide the exhaust.
    “Watch him run,” he said, but when the mule did not run Jenness turned to pass the mule, fearing a collision. Just as he was opposite the mule it let fly with both heels, striking the motor cycle amidships and hurling the riders over a steep bank. The machine was broken to pieces and the riders were badly bruised.
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, February 2, 1912
    Three years ago a woman farmer in Wales sold a pony to her son, who resides some twenty-five miles away between Rhuddian and Rhyl. The pony has for the third time found its way back to its former home, managing to unfasten two gates in order to do so.
Published in the Belvidere Standard, Belvidere, Illinois on Tuesday, June 2, 1863
    There is now in Wheeling a mule whose remarkable career is deserving of some notice. This mule was drafted into the army shortly after the rebellion exhibited to full view its gigantic head, and was afterwards transferred to the famous Jackass Battery. He was engaged in the battle of McDowell, Cross Keys, and followed Fremont all through the valley of Virginia in the pursuit of Stonewall Jackson. The mule, whose name is Thomas, but is called “Tom,” for short, is remarkable for his great coolness under fire. He seemed to care no more for the whistling of cannon balls than if they had been so many blue-bellied flies. “Tom” has been wounded six times. He has a bullet through each ear, and a Minie ball shaved off his tail close to his body. At the battle of Cross Keys a ball entered his hip and came out in the middle of his back, but not withstanding all this he soon recovered again and was ready for duty. About three months ago, Tom, having been transfered from the Jackass Battery to a baggage wagon, found some wild cucumbers on the road which had been thrown from a bottle of bitters, and eating freely of the same, became so intoxicated that his driver at once dismissed him from the service, and he was sold to a discharged soldier, who paid for him with a badly damaged overcoat. He was thus hastily disposed of under the impression that he was afflicted with the blind staggers. Tom soon recovered from his intoxication, and was sent to Wheeling where he is fast recovering from the stress of his campaign among the mountains. He is in great spirits now and we understand he thinks of reenlisting for the war.