The morning news., 1888-06-02
A REAL OLD TERROR.
How it Lived for One Hundred and
Thirty Years.
From Tie Pal MaA Gazette.

From the Pail Mau Gazette.
Chelsea family is at the present time
mourning the loss of a fireside companion
not a cat, dog, a jackdaw, raven, nor,
indeed, anything in the feathery line, but
simply an old, slow-going tortoise. This
old fellow was called '"rommy,n and had
been in the family 26 years. He was
brought from Kent, where he had been
domestic institution for over 100 years in
the one family
1t is tradition in the family that hewa
the same size when brought from the Ber-
muda Islands in the first place as he was
twenty-slL years ago. In his early days it
was necessary to chain him within the gar
den, a. he would chaw up bed of lettuce
or any other toothsome herbage i'll very
| short order. The chain was fastened to
| him by means of hole bored through the
tail end of his shell, but SO strong was the
| tortoise he broke away from the chain, sac
riticing bit of his she'll This fracture is
now plainly visible i'll the shell, and the
lady IN whose possession the creature died
says that when she was child this fracture
| looked quite the same as it does now. She
is now over 20, and the tortoise had never
been chained up in her time. Tommy"
and the family cat, of whom he buried
| many generations, were always the greatest
| chums and ate their bread and milk out OF
the same dish His last feline companion
| (who survives him) is quite inconsolable
| shell, and, notwithstanding he has
! been dead a week, she still returns
to it and sits by it for hours, re-
| fusing indeed to take anything like her Gus
tomary ''rations" When she first made
| Tommy's acquaintance she was little kit
| ten, her mother before her having been in
troduced to him at the same age. One very
| strange popularity in the associations of the
| many feline companions that Tommy had
had during his life-and he never was with
out one, if his history be correctly told
was that when he came to bury himself for
| the winter season the cats newer showed any
unsssiness at his disappearance. Every year
about the middle of October he
made his way into the garden
and mysteriously disappeared. About
the middle of April, or, if the spring
were somewhat early, about April l, he
| would be seen trotting slowly toward the
kitchen, all covered with mud. He was at
| once put through the regulation toilet, and
| the cat and he would resume their old COM
| panionship over the bread and milk as
though it had been but yesterday they
feasted together. Searching the garden re-
vealed that Tommy had gone down into the
| earth always below two feet, but when it
had been an unusually severe winter he had
been known to sink as far as four feet. The
tradition in his history goes that
| never has anybody been able to dis
cover the spot where he disappeared, but
his coming up was invariably disclosed
by a mass of earth being thrown up about
hole foot or so in diameter. SO expert
was he in shielding his disappearance that
| the family in whose possession he died have
been unable for the past twenty-six years
to discover even the least sign in the soil
| where he had gone down, though the garden
| is comparatively small, and the places of
his coming up showed that he was by no
means careful to pick out an obscure spot.
Indeed, as general rule, he went down and
came up at a point close to path, or
equally well exposed spot, and thus, as the
great artfulness When it came to his
time to disapper, he would be founl
waiting at the kitchen door, and
on the door being opened he
would trot away as though just given his
freedom after long Imprisonment. This al
ways occurred toward sundown. If it hap
pened to turn out bright moonlight night,
Tommy would not disappear, and would
not refuse the bread and milk, lettuce, or
other things given him next morning.
Last October Tommy showed very little
inclination to hibernate, if that be what his
disappearance meant, though he surely
could not have sucked his crusty paws.
When the time for his disappearance had
passed some weeks soft spot was dug for
him in the garden. He showed very
little desire to bury himself, SEEM
to the kitchen CRATE. After Il rec
or four similar attempts great care was
taken to make him feel comfortable in the
kitchen, his feebleness being quite apparent
From about the time when he should have
disappeared he began to refuse every form
of nourishment. Though every kind OF
greens procurable-such as lettuce, cabbage,
etc-were offered him, the old fellow never
partook of anything, and died. He was for
crawling into every corner that seemed to
promise warmth, his favorite spot being
under the grate where he was frequently
found surrounded by hot ashes and
sometimes well sprinkled with hot
cinders. A week ago he was
found dead in a snug corner of the
kitchen. Not even an Egyptian mummy
could be more suggestive of age than this
tortoise in its present state. The she'll is
about 10 inches long and inches wide,
being fully ~ inches thick in the centre of
the back. tapering down TO half an inch in
thickness less than an inch from the edge of
the she'll The shell itself has almost a
round appearance, owing to the high curve
in the back. These peculiar shield-like
formations on the back are badly
worn in their lines through age, the
main one, which was just back of
the neck, having fallen away entirely
leaving whitish patch. This only occurs
in such creatures as a result of extreme age
The claws are worn away, and where the
skin usually appears is to be found only
blackish scales. Tommy is said to have
been of extraordinary strength, and tests
to which he had been put have shown him
to have been able to draw all ordinary
Kitchen table about the room. Tommy
knew his name and would respond instantly,
following any member Of the family wher-
ever he could. He is believed to have been
100 years old
AS Max O'Reu Sees Us.