Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-05-23
THE CUB CREEK BULI-FIGHT.


fhc scene of n brief mining excitement.
After that there was blaze of disorder
~ glory. This subsidized into tame
l<oreer OF cattle ranching, which finally
&eveloped an unexpected resource. It
Uaa found that the light and powdery
eoil of the valley, when properly irri-
gated, produced potatoes in great guam
Nty and of excellent quality.
From this moment the prosperity of
the Cub Greek valley was assured. Pc
into ranches were opened in every di-
rection. Irrigating enterprises were
updertaken on large scale, and land
rose rapidly in value. Cub Creek City
soon had population of 5000 souls,
with an opera house, a daily paper and
mayor and city council.
Ny 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 attract
I'D many thousands of people, and which
served to increase the fame and an
nounce the resources of the district.
Committees were appointed to de-
wise attractive features for the occa-
a5on. l 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
-.snd startling"
If it is to be picturesque" l said in
one OF the committee meetings, sit must
be borrowed from one of the bygone
times in this valley"
We all remained silent and reflected n
moment, and then Tom Narcross
Jumped up in some excitement.
81 have It'll" he exclaimed. Wen
s give them n bull-fght!" We were
struck almost dumb by the brilliancy
of the suggestion, ind adopted it by a
unanimous vote.
Butitwas one thing TO decide to have ~
bull-fight and another to get one up
My father told us that we must put it
through ourselves" he had no time to
snperintend it. But we must guarantee
that no one should he hurt in 1t, and
,fllat the animals should neither be
killed nor cruelty treated.
We gave the guarantee, and set about
organizing the fight" OF course we
knew absolutely nothing about bull
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
plains.
Nor could we fipd anyone who had
Ind experience in bull-fghts. 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, that when 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-6ghting. and then I 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 l knew
into a corps of toreadores, picadores,
rhulos, banderillos and matadores.
Most OF the boys wanted Ia be torea-
dores or matadores, but Tom and exi
ercised our authority, seconded b. that
of my father, to such an extent that we
finally filed up the ranks.
Then we appointed subcommittee
on costumes, and called in the assist
aDce of my sister Blanche and of Toms
mother, who had gift for getting up
ali sorts of fancy dresses. gave them
my notes on the subject of bull-fghters'
costumes, and they set at work.
Everything seemed TO be going on
swimming now. One further i'm
portant requirement in bull-fght
had yet, however, to be met. We must
srnxe some bulls! This was the most
dinicnlt task of the whole enterprise.
But at last we borrowed five handsome
Texas steers belonging to a ranchman
nj the head of the creek.
Eor our arena, we proposed to have
nm Enclosure of barbed wire at one side
OF the grounds where the potato picnic
was to be held, in such n situation that
the grandstand, put up for other spec
fncles, would command an excellent
view of it. An entrance way from out
side the grounds, through gate at one
side of the grandstand, and fankcd on
ono side by that structure and ON the
other by an ordinary board fence, was
TO be constructed.
1t seemed to us that a barbed wire in
riosure was much better than the
ordinary arena of the Spanish and
Mexican bull-fghtS, because it would
enable every one to see plainly what
was going on, at the same time it pro-
4 xided security for the audience. We
brought the Texas steers to the town,
and put them on short rations TO make
zhem ferocious. We did not intend to
hurt them. Neither did we mean they
should hurt us.
The costumes were TO be the principal
part Of our Corrida de Toros; we were
10 have sort of dress parade around
xhe corral of handsome boys on hand