The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-03-28

S]loutuSAS anu ItDe. 10 these CaltS stIe aIiiA-
ed gay colofed flags, and, nloreyor, crackers,
which, exploding, frizzle in the unhappy
beasts flesh, half blind him with their fumes.
aud cause him Infinite agony and beviIdar-
mont The most skilful among the handa.
rlleros are, in course oftime, promoted to be
natadores. tl..,.,s .
The matador is the great "swelr' of Tau
rornachy. The cut OF his apparel is similar to
that OF the capadores and banderileros, but
It is richer ID material and more Iavishly en-
Dfoiueieu' Inc matador always carries two
pocReI--supposed to be specially embroidered
IoF nm By Ia msja de su corazon; the "a iy of
ms love. The matador does not appear on
the scene until the bull has ripped up his
proper allowance of horses, gored the Tequi-
site number of picadores, tossed the average
amount OF capadores, and suffered himself
the qnantun of pain and anguish deemed
adequate by the scientific dfci0nados or
amateurs OF the bull ring. Then is the time
ior the ntdtddor TO go ID and win. be en-
tiers "mincingly," like Agag in Scripture; ad-
yances to the front of the Autoridad's trib
une, makes short speech, settled by i'm
memorial tradition, TO the effect that filri-
| ous hi having broken loose, and the lives of
the lieges being endangered thereby, he will
| 90 his best to stay him, and then proceed to
| confront his antagonist. In one hand he car
ries crimson flag with short staff, which
! he uses as lure to the bull in the other is
his sword-a long, keen, exclusively tempered
Toledo rapier.* 1t is rule in bun fighting
that the bull must make a rush on. the naata-
doTS point If the mGtador advances on him
IL Is ioul play. 1t is needless to say that this
one man, with but slender sword for a
| weapon, standing within three feet of an in
| furiated animal of gigantic size and strength,
carries his life in his hand and, indeed, the
nadtddor is very often killed. More often,
however, he Kills the bull with his first thurst
passing in its point neatly underneath the
| lett shoulder and tfanshxing the lungs. IF
| the buu be not mortaliy wounded, but only
! sta9gers and falls, the mGtddor disdains to
| dispatch him. An assistant carnifeI appears
| in the arena. He Is called the cGchetero, and
| getting astride the bulls neck Jobs short
dagger in between the cerVical vetebrsa. The
| spinal marroW-the quicksilver in LIES tube,
is reached, and the bull dies. Then the cLulos
Varlets in blue jackets, white trowsers, and
red sashes, enter with their team of gay
caparisoned mules, and the carcass of poor
bull is dragged by the hind legs, and amidst
the shouts OF the aSsemblage. to the adjoining
calnetcoria, or shambles, where he is forth
with dismembered and his proud flesh sold
at vile price TO the lowest of the populace.
confess that my first bull fight made me
very ill. did not faint; but when l went
out into the open after seeing two toros de
muerte die the death, was violently and
physically sick. Dover to Calais--the worst
sea passage in the world-was nothing to do
it. My moro acclimatized friends smiled
grimly. "Wait till you get to Seville" they
said. An apprenticeship to Tauromachy is,
according to the Spaniards, divisible into four
stages. The first time you go to fight you
should swoon; the second you should be sick /;
the third time you shonld be simply shocked.
After the fourth corrida you have become a
confirmed bullfghter.
have attended good many corridas-
some OF them on the grandest scale-since
that first essay at Madrid; but fear that |
shall never achieve confirmation in bull fight
ing, and until 1 left Spain always required
a little dutch courage" to nerve me for the
performance. One good way to avoid nausea
is never to let your cigar go out; the fumes of
| the weed obscure your view of what is going
on little; and to this intent what are called
bull lighters cigars" are sold in the arena !;
enormous truncheons of tobacco, so to speak
which may be warranted to blaze away Tor
tull three-quarters of an hour. Moreover, I
! happen TO be extremely short sighted: and
this circumstance, which in many cases
would be grieVous disadvantage, stood me
in some stead in the bull ring, by hiding from
me some OF the most repulsiVe features in the
| exhibition. The arena is very vast, and at
| times the combat seems to be going on a
quarter OF mile OFF. Some parts of it are
certainly iheffably disgusting There is a
great deal OF blood split, but not much of it is
allowed TO be seen Tor any length OF time
save wien The matador manages to thrust
ms rapler right through the bulls lungs
linen the llie-stre am Spouts forth in Grim
son cascade, which gathers in a gory pool
all round the poor brute and its SPRAY often
sons the matador the skin, and irretrieyabIy
| spolls his gay dress; but he is rather proud
OF his sangninary bath than otherwise. since
1t shows that he has made good estocada
! or thrust At other times soon as blood tails
| one of the "odd men" of the arena comes
| forward with basket full of sand. and
speedily covers up the slaughter-house evil
| dence. In so far, bnll-6ghting has an advau-
tage over cock lighting, in which have often
seen white bird dabbled purple all over
from the blows of his antagonist. It is less
Vlslbly san9uinary, too, than prize fighting
There are amateurs of punishment" T
know, and the sight Of first "claret' NAV be
exhilarating to the amateur, but when the
jaw of the gladiator opposite to you begins
to assume the appearance of raw beef Won
are warranted, should say, in shutting up
your opera glass. Nor in bull fight is there
much to turn pale against, after the first vara
or onslaught on the bull by the picador with
his lance, the animal makes an entrada de
recaTga or counter-charge, in which "picr
gets endorsed, sometimes getting a very
heavy fall. The man is paid to have his
limbs bruised and his ribs broken. His head
IS protected by strong hat and his body. as
have already observed, is padded all over.
would rather watch the "cropper he catches
than see wretched acrobat striving to walk
head downwards across the glass ceiling of a
London music hall, and missing the Grip OF
his sucker shoes on the slippery crystal.
come tumbling down into net. Sometimes
not often, the picador Cislocates his neck.
or fractures his spine. Things look uolier
when the bull, after endorsing his antago-
list, losses him. 1t is then all up with "pic.n
UP he goes, sky high, his sombrero firing one
way and his lance another, and his spurred
heels Vainly kicking against the air. Down
ne comes with a most prodigious "thud,2 and
often he is carried out of the arena-so mncb
waste paper and padding-so much waste
flesh and blood, and all as dead as herrino
Well, he was paid to be tossed, and if he
comes TO grief, II is bis business. / sunnose
not ours. He does not die unshriyen. He
and all others Of the buli-fishting gentry are
confessed and absolved before thew 90 into
the ring, by q clerical gentleman employed
by the administration. He must be a Kind of
sporting parson, should fancy, but as stale
and unaccustomed to the work as the chan
lain to a metropolitan cemetery who suffers
from chronic congestion of funerals on the
basin,"
Ii IS curious to watch q bull after he has
tossed the picador. There is his enemy
stunned and bleeding, entirely at his mercy:
but never saw a bull offer to toss him twice,
he looks at him out of the corner of his red
eye, with halt-puzzled, half-sulky express
ion, as though be had not quite made I'm his
mind that he was right in taking such a l:b-
erty with man. Then he will 20 do to the
horse, lying on his side ripped up. At this
unfortunate brute he will look, at first grump-
lily, then spitefully; at last, with a furious
below of rage, he viii plunge his sharp
horns into him, and gore the carcass over
and over again, or will run off to the plea
doris hat, and tear andtrample that article of
apparel into the dust. Little sympathy is
ever shown even by the audience towards
the picador That he gets what he deserves
seems to be the general opinion; and when
he is neatly canted out of his saddle there is
usually cry OF Bravo Toror' "Hurrah for
Bullw 1t is something to hear eight thou
sand voices yelling Bravo Toro! the women
actually shrieking with excitement, waving
their handkerchieis and clacking their fans
The Seyillenos make more noise In the bull
ring than the Madrilennos, but the former
are held to be the best sportsmen. MadriS
may be the EPSON OF Tauromachy. but Sc
vile is its Newmarket, and in the vicinity OF
of that charming Andalusian city most of
the celebrated bull fighters, whether active or
retired, have their residence. At Madrid the
populace often behave very badly. peltinc
clumsy chulos with oranges and cigar endS
and sometimes even bursting into the rag
swarmins over the palngs, like Jenny e;
Brien, who, as we are told in the s,nS of
"CIarrVOWenD Steamed over the dooLe =;