BULL FIGHT IN CITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18457, 21 July 1923, Page 11

BULL FIGHT IN CITY.

MELBOURNE SENSATION.

MAD BEAST RUNS AMOK.

CAPTURED AND DESTROYED.

[FBOM- OTO OWN

SYDNEY, July 12.

; The thousands of citizens who aw to -be seen in the vicinity of Prince's Bridge in Melbourne,'had all the excitement of a : bull light with, some* novel elements thrown in a day or two ago. i A , particularly ferocious- and shaggylooking bull was being. led through the city'to the abbatoirs. Several times it caused the men in charge anxiety by making toward vehicles, being apparently- bewildered and infuriated by its strange surroundings, < bat in an unruly fashion it progressed in the required direction until it reached the bridge. There, the congested traffic seemed to rouse it to fury, and with a bellow which sent pedestrians flying in 'all directions in terror of their lives; the great animal lunged, head down, away from its powerless keeper. With astonishing rapidity the crowds on the bridge melted away and nobody was to be seen brat an unfortunate policeman, who, like the Roman sentinels, would not desert his pest of duty in the moment of peril. Toward this hapless officer the maddened: bull made with a ponderous rush. With moving-picture rapidity the policeman dodged and waved his hands in a futile attempt to affright the. beast, but the latter wheeled and made another snorting rush at the momentary object of its passion. At bay the policeman stood panting against the balustrade of the brides, and with a suddon' impulse, as the lowered horns were almost upon him, he leapt on to the parapet,, and all bat his clinging hands and the tip of his head disappeared from the view of the horrified spectators who were watching events at a very respectful distance. . ■, ,• With the policeman's body ' dangling 50ft. over the maddy waters of the Yarra on the opposite side of the parapet the bull crashed harmlessly into the masonry. Dazed, with the concusson the beast turned and. staggered, but recovering itself it dashed off again, bell6wing as it. went, toward the St. Kilda road side of the bridge. .'•■ . . Here an unwary pedestrian caught its wild ayes. The man tried to dodge, but ho was too far away from the side of the bridge to adopt the policeman's extreme jexpedient, and in & moment man and bull were mingled in . the street. Leaving its victim prone on the roadway, whence he was later taken to the Melbourne Hospital suffering from severe shock, bruises, and a broken rib,' the bull made off along St. Kilda Road. Meanwhile the police headquarters had been hurriedly advised, and soon a troop of mounted and armed police came clattering over the bridge iv full chase. They oame upon their quarry' gazing with malignant defiance at the statue of the poet Burns which stands in St. Kilda Road. The oncoming horses roused it to a sense of clanger, and with a terrifying bellow its' great head went down and its cruel horns came charging along at its pursuers. With a "fine display of, horsemanship the policemen wheeled it round, and off it went at .full tilt into the Snowden Gardens, where, dashing among the trees, it .was. skilfully lassoed. In a few minutes the great creature was pounding the turf at the foot of a tree to whioh ho was secured, and a single "shot told the excited : people in the - distance that all danger was over.-.