The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-07-11 00:00:00

THE HAVRE BULL FIGHT.
(From a special correspondent of The Times.

A bull fight within twelve hours of London Is a
templatioa not to be easily withstood It Ac a uovelly
iii
the annals of modern civilization, and, in order to decide
whether it matks a step In advance or the reverse, it
must lie worth a nian's while togh and see It. . . . .
After a brief review of the history of bull-fights in
Spain, the correspondent proceeds to give a description of
the scene at Harrel
I have this moment come back from the bull tight The
affair turned out as I expected. It was the Spanish tragedy
sobered down into a French tragi-comedy, Thete was no
one killed, no one seriously hurt, and not more than a few
drops of blood trickled down into the trodden sand of the
arena. There woo no OCC:114011 for a team of mules to remove
the slaughtered carcass of a stabbed bull or of a dozen ins-
endsiwelled horses ; no use of a priest with "So Illage.tad,''
the Holy Host, waiting to administer the last ri es of the
Catholic religion to a man gored to death. Six bulls Were
run, all of that description which the Spaniards call loros
de Muerte," but they all came into the ground un-
harmed, and were allowed to leave it unharmed.
Tone horns were "embolados," or tipped with rather
largo knobs at the ends. It was a prise fight with
the gloves on, a duel with foils, a sport corresponding to
what is termed in Spain a "Corrida de Nosalo,, ' a meek
tight with young calves, which are being trained and tested
for the real game, and which can be baited l mere urchins
without apprehension of serious risk. Toe Mayor of Ilavre
intimated to the Spaniards float upon the leaht accident oc-
curring their licence should be withdrawn, and the Spaniards
engaged that not a fly should he hurt. To say that so innocent
a pastime was sufficient toentertain 7,000 orS,Othi Frenchmen,
most of 01010 belonging to the sipper and middle classes, hr
two hours, and to throw them into fits of excitement, merri.
ment, and unmixed delight, Is to insure for it a welding
among all the polished communities of both hemispheres.
The next we shall hear of the bull fight Is that it has pro-
ceeded to Paris.
The population of Havre numbers more than 70,000 souls.
The people had all the morning spent the Sunday agreeably
to the maxim, " Business first, pleasure afterwards ;" but
towards two o'clock m the afternoon the shops were either
closed or forsai, en, and the happy crowds, cheered by the
freshest air and the most speckless sky, were hurrying to
their numberless haunts of amusements—co/a, pniapticttcs,
wine shops, beer shops, cider shops, whirligigs, moue balls,
athletic sports, shooting galleries, AC. The akki kk mtion of all
these various resorts of high anti low was Be great that I
began to tear that Frenchmen were not to be weaned from
their own ways of life, and that the performance of
their Peninsular neighbours would fall flat from lack
of spectators. On first entering the arena, however, I
found out my mistake. The appointed hour for the Spanish
spectacle was four o'clock, and at half-past three
the shady side of the amphitheatre was already thronged,
and by the time the show was ushered in not more than a
few hundred seats on the dazzling sunny-side were left
vacant. The amphitheatre was a rough round shed of
unpainted deal boards on the outside, but inside it was
laid out recttadom artem, unadorned, but solid and hand-
some, a round sanded floor, with the ofiro, or barrier, six
feet high, contpassing it on all sides, a small free spa, or
corridor running behind it, and aledre this the spectators'
seats rising step above step in concentric circles, On the
extreme west was the Crown box, with the Sous-Prefet and
the municipal authorities; opposite was the 'hod, or bull
entrance, of which the Government high functionary had the
keY. The tor-adores, or performers, 00 1,101 oven horseback,
were to come in at another door on the north side. The
sky, intensely blue, canopied the gay scene.
Punctually at four a flourish of trumpets announced the
commencement, when two gawky horsemen, in Spanish
costume, on very sorry steeds, came in tugging desperately
at the reins, anti rode shambling up to the Crown box, doing
obeisance to the chief local authority, and receiving the key
of the hull door, which was flung down to them au bedisened
with ribands. There was then another flourish, and the
sorry riders made their appearance mice more, but this time
heading the whole corps of performers—the two mounted
picadors, the two espadas, or inn/odors, and four rho or, or
banderille mg. The whole of theee men wore the regular Anda-
lusian or Figaro cogtume ; their jackets were one blase °Rinse'
11,111 spangles: they wore embroidered " smalls " lit vat ions
colours, etockings, anti pumps. The infantry had small pork-
pie hats on ; they waved Meg and broad cloaks of scarlet or
purple ; the mounted men bad broad-brinuned hats, and
their legs were cased in huge greaves ; they brandished a
long spear or pole with a short sharp spike at the end. Their
horses w-ere encumbered with the clumsy Morisco saddle,
with heavy shovel stirrups. The horses were tall, lank,
Spanish jennets, old, but not alb griller broken down. They
come groping in with bandaged eyes, and appeared hard-
mouthed, awkward, and not easily handled. All
the eight combatants were soon in their places ; the
two picadors, one behind the other, with their steeds
backing close to the barrier, the other men scattered
hei e anti there, with their cloaks on their arms. Again the
trumphets gave the signal, the fora door was thrown open,
and the first bull hounded in. The supply of the cattle, no
far away from their native herds, is somewhat scanty, and
most of the bulls are old stagers, knowing runt wary, acting
the fight rather than actually fighting. The oonsc]tinsness of
the helpless condition of these animals, with those round
knobs at their horns' ends, has also the effect of (wiring
their adversaries with a confidence which degeuerates into
carelessness, a familiarity which bleeds contempt, and takes
away not a little of the intensity of the beholders' inte: est.
! Under such conditions bull fight becomes sheer bull play.
! The picadors aniseed themselves mere bunglers at the outset.
, The bull rusheill at the foremost If them in his headlong
' career, shuened the point that was levelled at his shoulder,
and, co kkk ll g to close quarters, attacked the h.rse from
mulermath with such impetus astir lift both the animal and
his rider bodily, throwing the latter heavily over the horse's
, ears. Our friend the picador was a stout man, and so dun-
tiered and weighed down by his greaves tbat, main losing kis
: seat, lie could do nothing hut he like a hug, neasuring his
full length on the sandy floor. At the mercy even of a horn-
I less bull, both man and horse would have fared somewhat
indifferently in such a predicament, but the chinos are ready
at sack juneteres ; they throw their cloaks i.p to the very
eyes of the kiwi:tied brute ; they shout to him, they be-
wilder him, and engage his attention till his prostrate foe
ha, either leisure to he helped up back again into his
seat, or to be moved away aching and limping from
the scene of hia blundming exploit. We had two such
falls in the that and second heats. Presently the
picadors seemed to mend their fence : they bore the
ink's onset on their quivering poles, and upon a first ex-
perience of their cruel apikeh tile animal became shy of them,
and turned to other adversaries. The real fun was limite.l
to the swift runs, the daring leaps, and the artful dodges of
she elmlos To see the poor boll pausing in the centre of the
ring, bullied, bearded, taunted right and left, puzzled to pick
out one of his many tormentors, trying half a rnsh here a
dead set there, helpless no a player at blindman's Miff,
darting, as he thinks, at a man, only to get at an empty
cloak, or, sometimes, running a race with the man, but
coming up with Mtn just as the nimble rascal vaults over
the barrier—all this must be allowed to be rare sport. It
may be varied by the banderillero, standing all alone
and without mantle hefore the bull, holding a barbed dart
11l each hand, and awaiting the anhnal as he comes on
In his rage, anti, while slipping aside in the very nick of
time, planting the darts in the small of the bull's Lack, just
above the neck, one on each side, the trick tieino
g, repeated
nil several pair of darts, flaes, and wreaths hatig ill the
panting beast, the last darts being banderillas deloego pr
virlat wit a orsakers whia os wiut as