Iron County register., 1891-10-15
A BULL FIGHT IN PROVENCE



Event.
Usually the bulls for the Sunday
bull fight are brought into the town
from the Camargue in closed van, and
scarcely anyone knows when they ar
rive. But at rare intervals they are
driven by their Camarguan keepers
through the streets to their stables in
the amphitheater In most parts of the
civilized world all precaution is taken
to keep wild cattle out of the public
thoroughfares; in Provence. to send
them tearing through the towns is the
treat of treats reserved for holidays.
The route they were now to follow had
been officially announced, with Nj. lie
maire's signature to the proclamation.
The greater part of it of course lay
along the boulevards. The whole place
was barricaded with wooden barriers to
prevent their escape down any cross
street, and everywhere shutters were
drawn IN lower windows, and doors
were closed, and shops were shut, in
case they did, by chance. get loose.
Business was suspended.
By three o'clock. the entire town of
more than twenty thousand people had
On the Lices there was not a vacant
table. Gay parties We're at every win
dow and in every pretty hanging gar
den. The paths opposite were thronged,
and the market was over. To greet
the bulls the stately, handsome women
of Aries had put on their finest cos
tunes, their long gold watch-chains
hanging over the QuaI1er-like shawls
and soft fichus. the pretty Arlesian
cross at their throat. tiny square of
rich old lace inclosed in the velvet rib
bon of their head-dress. They walked
together arm-in-arm on the wide road,
conscious that they were, as a sight.
equal to any other part of the days
show
Boys already were climbing into the
trees in delicious tremor of fear and
expectation. But suddenly
there was cry of, ''Ye. les taureaux.''
and the dancers, hot and breathless,
rushed to the garden railings. Out on
the Lices people were fleeing in every
springing across the little
ditch by the roadside, jumping up on
the high marble benches.
Al the far end of the boulevards rose
a cloud of white dust. The next minute
eight black bu Is Numbered past on
dead gallop, the foam streaming from
their mouths. guarded on each side by
men, each one of whom carriedsa long
trident and was mounted on a white
horse of Camargue. After them came
at full tilt men and boys and even wo-
men. From the gardens the crowd
turned and made a short cut for the am
From every street people
were running towards it, laughing,
shouting. pushing, painting. All Aries
was racing for one more look at the bulls.
We reached the front of the main en-
trance just in time to see the black
bulls galloping up narrow street. one
or two little in advance, and the white
horses, their riders setting firm in the
saddle. the long tridents in their hands.
They were at the top of the street The
only way now open for them led into
the stables. Suddenly the barrier fell.
Eight bulls were at large in the streets
of Aries.
Everybody left. did not wait to see
anything more. But when, once safe
inside the amphitheater, looked out
again, near windows and balconies were
still crowded, and there were still groups
On many housetops; but no one was on
the street.
Gradually the women came back to
the doors, lifting up the green curtains
and peeping out while they kept the |
children well behind them Men
walked boldly about. Then at last we
started cautiously for the hotel. Wild |
-umors were abroad. Zone bull has |
gone into the Cafe du Forum. It |
jumped through the glass of the front |
loor The walters and the patron ran.
It knocked down the tables; it went out |
through the back door" Two are in |
he place de la Republique. They have
rot into the Hotel de Vile, and are |
mounting towards the man of bronze. |
The clerks have flown" They are |
coming here now. Les taureaux! les |
Then came precipitate
light
But the bulls We're seen no more that |
hight. They gone back to the
Iamargue Eight others, fresh and fit /
or combat, were brought in the COW
,red van to take their places.
Preposterous as it may seem to let
'egiment OF cowboys and bulls loose in
his town-a fiourishing city long before
he Christian era-there was u barbaric
3icturesqueness about the grand arrival
If the bulls not TO be found IN the bet
er regulated spectacleS OF more serious
Pennell, in Century.
Summary Execution.
i I, II |