The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-29
HAD A BULL FIGHT
An Exciting Experience at
VOLTS Packing House.
UnruIy Steer Battles With His
SIayers.
HE JUMPS 40 FEET
Lands on an Iron Roof and Is
Unhurt
Finally Driven Back Into Death
Pen and Killed.
3 JUMPS 40 FEET

Topeka had the first bull fight OF its
history Thursday, and it is doubtful if
Old Mexico. in it's paImiest days, ever
had one half so spectacular.
1t began UP In the third story of
Wolff's Packing house. in the killing
room A lusty young beef was in
weighed UP the gang plank into the
death box, over which a muscular son
of Ireland presides with an ak. Unfor-
tunately the trap door had not fasten-
ed itself securely, and the bull got out
into the skinning box, where the ami
mails are hung up on chains and pre-
pared for the cutters. This place is
only big enough to swing a cat around
in without knocking everything off the
wall Chief Butcher Ed Swartz armed
with a big knife. that looked like a
corn chopper saw him coming. His
beefship was stamping, believing,
snorting mad. His ire had been
head butcher made frantic escape
around the grind stone. But that didn't
phase the bull. He pirouetted around
that knife sharpener like a top. Tom
Campbell, who is Swartz's assistant
doomed UP just then. The bull didn't
stop for an Introduction. Swartz mean
time had managed to get himself tan
gled up with one Of the rafters and
I
for a soft spot on which to light, the
bull still coming. A big peg on the
wall came in mighty handy, and the
assistant head butcher hung himself
onto it like a hat. But there was still
another Toreador in sight. Charles
Swartz. the son of the head butcher,
is learning the business. He tried to
get out of the door, but the bull
wouldn't allow him to. leave so early
The coming SWartz kept a-going
around that room like fy-Wheel. He,
too, was hunting for refuge There
was nothing else to do but climb up
on one of the carcasses hanging from
the ceiling, and he did it like an aero
bat.
This left the bull alone in his glory.
He turned a few steps around the
room, and beloved like a buffalo. He
walked around in the blood which
covered the floor and turned the air
/ into a cyclone with his revolutions.
/ But that kind of life was too tame.
/ Noticing the open window looking out
upon First street, he made one grand
stand plunge out of it and fell on the
sheds forty feet below. One of his
! legs went through the corrugated iron
i but he pulled out safe. The roof is
a big one, almost large enough fer a
/ game of baseball. His beefship had 1t
all to himself for half an hour. He
waltzed and tWo-stepped around in a
1 ing masters enViOus.
| All sorts of coaxings and rocks and
old tin cans couldn't induce him to
| come off" And the way he beloved
brought everybody to the packing
house from three blocks around.
About this time Walt Campbell, the
yardmaster. got into the game. Camp
bell has lots of nerve, and acting upon
! his convictions he climbed UP on one
/ corner of the shed and brandished a
siX-shooter at the animal That didn t
suit the latter, and he gave Campbell
| one hypnotic look and then made a
grandstand dive off the shed into the
hog yard below.
That is where he made his mistake.
| Campbell armed with the revolver IN
| one hand. a fence board, some rocks,
and a whip in the other drove the bull
| into the gangplank and back up to the
! death box" Then the end came.
But the remarkable thing about it all
| is that the animal was not one whit
/ the killing" axe. He bore not a
scratch from his double leap, and final
ly the United States inspector tagged
| him absolutely o. K"
The story might be hard to believe
and that is what the reporter thought
| when put on to it. He expressed his
! doubts to the butchers. Come along
! and We'll show YOU" was their answer.
Sure as fate the shed is fully 40
feet beneath the third story of the
! killing room. ON one side is a big
hole, which plainly shows that it is
but a few hours old. The black paint
on the iron is marked up with hoof
prints from one end TO the other, indi-
eating that the bull must have done
some fast travelling while he was on it
Down in the hog yard the earth is
torn up about a foot deep where he
lit, four feet punched, when Campbell
| drove him off the roof with a re-
/ volver.
Some people say that animals know
something. This bull certainly must
! have known what was coming. The
butchers who had to hustle for their
safety say that he fought like demon
all during his wild escapade and right
up to the time when he was finally
nut ont of bushes