Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1886-08-04
Wednesday, August A, 1855.
IN SPANISH WILDS,

Horseback Travelling VS.. Railway
Witnessing a Madrid Bull Fight
One Man Injured MORALLY and
Eighteen Horses Killed.
Mr.. E. L. Goodsell, son of CIV. Goodsen of
this city, who is travelling in Europe, writes
to a friend in this city from Hotel Tortosa,
Almeria, Spain, date of July 1, 1886. Ex-
tracts from his letter are as follows
After speaking of the difficulty of rushing
it in travelling in the interior of Spain he
says: 81 find some little difficulty in getting
along here, as soon being out of the beaten
track of tourists, the natives rarely speak
anything but their own language. The
Mediterranean seashore towns are very beau
tifully located on high cliffs and whore the
sun is less hot and must be most pleasant
places to live in. st. Sebastian, on the Bay
of Biscay, Cadiz, on the Bay of Cadiz, and
Malaga, a seaport town, are really nice
places. Where 1 am now is almost out of
the world There is no railroad within one
hundred and twenty miles, and it would be
impossible for me to get there on account of
the sun and no roads. The next steamer
sails on Thursday next, SO should want to
get out of here in hurry you see am
''boxed in" 1 leave for sixty miles of
horseback riding to grape growing districts
and shall get back in time to sail for Cartha-
gena on that day. / saw grand bull fight
in Madrid week ago, which, in spite of the
fact that it was the most cruel, blood
thirsty exhibition 1 ever saw, was in
teresting. There were 16, 900 people seated
in great arena, and the greatest fighters of
the age were to kill the bulls, six in number.
These are bred particularly for fighting, are
very fierce and were the most magnificent
specimens of the bovine tribe I ever looked
upon. They are tortured with long cruel
pixies and picks, stuck into them often foot
deep. The men who handle the picks on
horseback, the riders legs being protected by
armor. Thus clad they charge the bull
much in the fashion of the fitting tournament,
and the most horrible sights ensue, the horses
being ripped open, some from end to end !;
others ripped in the belly q foot deep and
wide, allowing the whole insides to run out
on the ground; others pierced through the
breast. In the second case the entrails are
cut off by a rip of the knife when the horse
isn't gored to DEATH and in the latter case
hemp is stuck in to stop the flow of blood,
when they continue to use the horses in that
condition. l saw one ride horse into bull
after he had been gored once and his entrails
were stringing along out of his body on the
ground for twenty feet, the horses own back
feet severing part of some from the body.
The fight ended at 8 p. M. 1t began at
four o'clock. One man was nearly killed
and eighteen horses killed and two I should
say MORALLY wounded. This performance
takes place every Sunday and is practically
the same every week, though the occasion
witnessed was particularly sensational. 1
am going soon to leave the wilds of Spain,
where am now, to Italy and then to Sicily,
and expect to sail from. Liverpool for home
August 18th"
Mr.. Goodsell is engaged in making foreign
business connections for himself in the bust
ness in New York which he has already es-
tablished.