The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1896-05-22
THE CUB CREEK BULL-FIGHT.
BY EDISON KEMP.

The great potato picnic will never be
forgotten by the people of the Cub
Creek valley. This district was a. first
the scene OF brief mining excitement.
After that there was blaze of disorder
ly glory. This subsidized into tame
career of cattle ranching, which finally
developed an unexpected resource. 1t
was found that the light and powdery
soil of the valley, when properly irri-
gated, produced potatoes in great guam
tity and of excellent quality.
From this moment the prosperity of
the Cub Creek valley was assured. Po-
tato ranches were opened in every di-
Iection. Irrigating enterprises were
undertaken on large scale, and land
rose rapidly in value. Cub Greek City
soon had population of 5000 souls,
with an opera house, daily paper and a
mayor and city council.
My father WAS the first mayor of the
city. He is very enterprising man,
and had contributed many schemes to
''boom" Cub Creek. One of his schemes
was the great potato picnic-a kind of
grand potato barbecue" which was
advertised far and wide, which al tract
ed many thousands of people, and which
served to increase the fame and an
nouace the resources of the district.
Committees were appointed to de-
wise attractive features for the occa-
sion. / was put on the committee on
sports, of which my friend, Tom Mar
cross, was chairman. We were told by
my father that no ordinary programme
of sports would do, and that we must
get up something picturesque, novel
Ond startling"
IF it is to be picturesque" l said in
one of the committee meetings, 1T must
be borrowed fl ON one of the bygone
times in this valley
We all remained silent and reflected
moment, and then Tom Narcross
jumped up in some excitement.
Il have it," he exclaimed. Well
give them q bull-tight!" We were
struck almost dumb by the brilliancy
of the suggestion, and adopted it by a
unanimous vote.
Butitwas one thing TO decide to have u
NV father told us that we must put it
through ourselves he had no time to
superintend it. But we must guarantee
tnat no one should be hurt in II, and
that the animals should neither be
killed nor cruelty treated.
We gave the guarantee, and set about
organizing the fight" Of course we
he t,.lx nntbtnn ahnnt hnlt-
fights. We had come TO the valley dur
ing the potato period, and knew nothing,
except from books and hearsay, of the
wild life in the mountains and the
pains.
Nor could we fud anyone who had
had experience in bull-tights. So much
time passed while we were vainly cor
responding with various people IN the
territory, hoping to find some one who
could direct bull-hght, thatwheh we at
last gave up searching and resolved to
trust to our own resources, we had but
three weeks left in which to prepare for
the event.
We read all we could find in the books
in the Cub Creek public library about
bull-fighting, and then l went down to
CHEYENNE and studied up the subject
In the public library there.
Ny first proceeding on reaching home
was to organize all the boys i knew
into corps of toreadores, picadores,
chulos. banderillos and matadores.
Most of the boys wanted to be torea-
dores or matadores, but Tom and 1 ex-
sEcised our authority, seconded BY that