BULLFIGHTING IN FRANCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1132, 28 August 1882, Page 4

BULLFIGHTING IN FRANCE.

SHOCKING SPECTACLE.

A Telegbam from Marseilles on 31st May, to the London Daily News, says ; —“ The bullfighting season has begun at Arles and Nimes, and has been opened by a terrible accident which took place last Sunday at Arles, in the old Roman arena of that town. The bulls were principally Spanish, and very savage. A spectator named Louis Bony, 60 years of age, having accidentally tumbled within the barricades, was immediately pursued by one ofthe|bulls. The poor ola man could not run very fast, and in a few seconds the bull had tossed hnn high into the air, and, letting him fall to the ground with a dull thud, the furious animal gored him with his horns. An indesscribablo scene of excitement ensued. The bull was secured, and the man carried in a shocking state to the hospital. Immediately after this deplorable accident the commissary and the sub-Prefect ordered the spectacle to be stopped; but this measure, wise and humane though it was, provoked such an outburst of protestation from the spectators, who had seemingly rather relished the sad scene than otherwise, that after an hour of free fighting and tumult within the arena, during which the cashier’s office was unsuccessfully stormed, the commissary and sub-Prefect were actually compelled to order the continuation of the performance. This extraordinary inhumanity is common in all the towns of the south of France where bullfighting is allowed, especially atNimes, where performances are held every Sunday during six months of the year. In this latter town two years ago the authorities were anxious to suppress the performances, and took measures to do so, but they deemed it expedient to withdraw the decree of suppression, before the acclamations of the popula* tion, who are notoriously as morbidly religious and fanatical as they are, in some respects at any rate, brutalised and inhuman.