Gored by Wild Bulls.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7862, 3 July 1905, Page 3

Gored by Wild Bulls.

CHILDREN SLAUGHTERED IN A field. t A terrible affair happened at Villamanrique, in the province of Seville, Spain. Twenty little girls wcic playing in the fields. They imitated a religious procession—made little banners of handkerchiefs, and turned their toys into images of saints. They were marching through the field, singing some sort of a chant, when eight large hulls, enraged by the noise and the fluttering of banners, escaped from a neighbouring drove, and attacked them furiously in a hoilow of the field. The children could not get away, and a terrible scene followed. The mad animals impaled them with their horns, tossed them, trampled upon them, and gored them while on the ground. Nine of the children were killed and six were seriously injured. A little girl of five had an amazing escape. Her clothes were lorn to shreds by the horns of the bulls, yet she was not injured. The drovers were at once arrested and put in prison. The precaution was very necessary, for when tbc villagers heard el the tragedy they stormed to the spot, threatening to lynch everybody concerned. Popular feeling attaches all blame to the drovers. II is their habit, when training wild bulls for the ring, to enrage the beasts by flicking coloured cloths in their faces. The banners of the children had the same effect as the cloths; and the angry parents assert that the drovers ought to have forsccn this, and kept the animals away. Villamanrique is the centre of the district where bulls arc bred for the ring ; and by an unwritten law the drovers are held responsible for the care of their beasts when they approach populated neighbourhoods.