The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-01
FEMALE BULL-FIGHTERS.


Kili--They Cali 1t sport.
from the st. Louis Globe Democrat
When the people Of Barcelona fired
the whole world with talk of war be-
tween Spain and the United States by
mobbing the American consulate in
that city and dragging the stars and
stripes in the dust, they had just come
from a bull fight. The ferocious sport
had excited their fiery natures to the
point of frenzy, and they were ready
for any extravagant act to relieve their
surplus excitement If there had beeu
no bull fight that day, Spain might not
now be fitting up privateers to prey
upon our commerce and spending mon
ey which it can i'll afford to use. 1t was
the bull fight which suddenly brought
on the crisis, otherwise the national diff
ferenees would have been shuttled
backforward and forward in the devi-
Gus channels of diplomacy, until all the
bitterness of feeling had been dissipa-
ted.
The Barcelona bull fight is quite diff
ferent from the same kind of sport in
other Spanish cities, for it is there. that
the woman bull fighter is born and bred
and makes her Introductory killing be-
fore an admiring audience Some of
the aristoeracy of the old regime de-
plore the existence of the woman bull
fighter, but the middle classes adore
her and every year marks an increase
in the ranks of the feminine dabblers
in blood.
In the old days the bull fighter was 4
gentleman of the bluest blood, who rode
into the ring on an Arabian charger,
worth almost his weight in gold. 1t
was a great accomplishment in the old
days, and the young gentleman who
ranked as the cleverest bull fighter of
| his time was a man of vast social dis
tinction He was the pet of all the fine
ladies of the land and the envy of all
| the men. Kings, queens and princes
smiled upon him, and there was no ia
vor too great to be feaped upon him.
He was the idol of the people. He did
not fight in the manner of to-day He
carried simple javelin, four feet long,
and slew the bull unaided, at the same
| time putting his spirited mount
through series of intricate evolutions
to show off the PAGES Of the animal ANA
his own horsemanship.
| These were brave days for the young
| men Of Spain. They were supplanted
| by the bull fighters who entered the are
ma for hire. These men at first took
| more desperate chances than the 9TH
ers, and, moreover. rode poor, broken
| down horses, which were so slow and
| nerveless that they could not avoid the
| cumbersome charges of the enraged
| bull. The horses were gored, and this
! added to the pleasure of the populaee
| The more blood that is spilled and spat-
| tered about, the greater the satisfac-
ton of the audience. If some poor pic
| ador is laid low their delight is SUI
preme. If the matador is hasty and
kills the bull early in the fight without
| giving the beast a chance to gore some
one the audience is angry. 1t has been
| cheated of it's share of blood.
The next step in the degeneracy of
| the bull ring, according to Spanish au-
! thorities. came with the appearance of
| the woman fighter. From the ranks of
the Barcelona mill hands, girls with
| agile bodies, handsome in face and
| form. come the women bull fighters
AS mill hands they are virtually slaves,
| earning only enough to keep body and
soul together. AS bull fighters they are
! the idols of the people, the recipients of
showers of adulation with fine clothes
and plenty of money to spend They
| live under a halo of happiness and
prosperity. No wonder it is the dream
! by day and night of all the pretty
1 dark-eyed girls shaving away in the
mills that they too, will enter the are
ma some day and kill bulls amid the
wild enthusiasm of the best people of
| the city.
1t is almost needless to say that the
most popular of these Amazons are the
prettiest and the shapeliest They
wear the same gsrb as men bull fight
ers, and they ride the horse astride. If
| they rode with the side saddle it would
| be most dangerous proceeding, for a
firm seat is essential to safety of life
and limb.
In the ring at some little distance it
| is quite impossible to distinguish the
sexes. The girls are quite as tall as the
men. and almost as heavily built.
There is nothing feminine about them,
either when the fight really begins.
They do not sicken at the sight of
| blood, but seem to gain ferocity by it,
and they are happy in scene which
would cause the average American wo-
man to faint in short order.
The horses which the women ride are
the same broken down wrecks which
! the men use. In fact the management
| finds that women are more reckless in
exposing the horses than the sterner
sex. This has led to practice which
| the Society for the Prevention of Cruel
ty to Animals would kill off in no time
in any city in this country. It is this:
| When a horse has been horribly gored
and staggers about the ring with his
entrails hanging out, he is not killed to
end his misery, but is led into one of
the stalls where his entrails are thrust
back and the wound in the stomach
sewn up. Sometimes he lives long
| enough to enter the ring next day. but
he is usually SO weak that the bull
makes short work of him.
On the day set apart for the women
bull fighters there are women only in
the ring. The picadors ride in on the
equine wrecks CARRIED in the costume OF
the Spanish knights of the middle ages