Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1906-03-02
BRUTAL. SPORT
 OF SpalM
Bull Fights Are Marked by Barbarity
 and Unqualified Wickedness.

that glistens like a golden halo in the gleam of. afternoon sunshine and drifts across the amphitheater, much as did the same shining crystals Ill the dim past, when the old Roman glad.ators fought for glory and sold their souls for salvos of applause Imagine a heeting glimpse of the tor. eador or matador as he flashes, t swiftly moving gleam of resplendent crimson stain light, and flaunts hls ruddv cloak or sash across the wick ed looking eyes Of the ha ry, long horned monster; catch below e1 pain and a triclzle of blood as the banderillero. with beribboned shaft, stabs the infuriated beast, leaving it embedded in the quivering flesh; crash of barbaric yet soul-stlrrlns music, and you have momentary flash of the national sport of Spain, the bull fight, writes Julia Lang in the New Yorker.
 True, there are minor chords in the grand ensemble. There is the back ground of those gayly attired women, whose swart beauty is famous the world over, whose mantillas glorify their bright eyes and over whose shapely shoulders soldiers and civil ians lean and wh sper soft, sensuous words. All are eager to applaud any special act of bravery, but seldom does one hear word of pity for the poor horse bestrode by the picador, that oft times gallops, blindfolded, to an awful death.
 Do you like the picture? Since that memorable summer day in Gre nada which I witnessed real bull fight have wondered whether I could ever again like the people who gloried in the powess of the agile gladiators for whom they cheered and applauded so madly. I saw five splendid bulls sacrificed in the name of sport thas sunny Sunday afternoon, and fifteen
 horses breathed their last in mortal agony, impaled on the spreading
 horns of the dreadful beasts who were goaded to an agony of despair
 It was the never to be forgotten ex-
 perience. The Mecca of every p lgrinl
 was the great amphitheater. There was but one mission, and that to view the glory battle that must end in death. I had almost begun to like the
 Spanish people, with their soft sibl-
 lant language and still softer dark
 eyes, but now I have a feeling of disgust for them all; yet the opening scene is far from bad, rather effective than otherwise.
 Following blare of trumpets, two riders or heralds dressed in black velvet enter the arena and salute the president of the society, who is a caballero and reclines languidly in a box draped most artistically with the national colors. They are followed by the picadors on horseback and the toreadors and matadors, each daz- zlingly clad in grandly effective and gorgeously spangled costumes elab- olately embroidered in gold and sil- yer. Crimson is the prevailing color, and these 1.-the, muscular men smile in self-possessed fashion, and bow elaborately in response to the volleys of applause. They salute the presi- dent and that official throws down the key to the bullpen with flourish. as the trumpets rend the ambient atmosphere The heralds retire and the picadors and toreadors draw to- ward the further end of the interior ring. The p.cadors are armed with long lances, while the toreadors dart hither and thither Haunting their crimson cloaks in the face of the in- furiated yet bewildered bull.
 Goaded to desperation, the bull charges, and if too close to the tor eador, the athlete leaps lightly over the barrier that divides the inner from the outer ring, while the un- wieldy animal dashes madly into the heavy timbers, only to reel back still more dazed, in quest of another tan- talizins streak of red satin, this time brushed across his very eyes by another toreador. Should he select a picador as the special object of his vengeance, the rider must be an ex- pert to save the blindfolded animal l from the mad rush. At times he.J makes the turn too late, and with a scream of absolute terror the doomed animal is whirled in the air and the most brutal and grisly spectacle of he battle is enacted. I saw three horses partly disemboweled, racing lround the ring at the same time, The