The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-11

proof amphitheatre and it was well
filed, the Sol of sunny side crowded
with the peon class, the women with
black rebosas and parasols, as numer-
Gus as the men, whose gay serapes re-
lieved the sombre black of their COM
included fair sprinkling of foreign
ers, although this is not the tourist
season in Mexico, on the shady side.
The band was playing and soon after
we were seated the applause of the
multitude greeted the arrival of the
bull fighters who marched into the
arena bowling to right and left like
circus performers. There were about
eight, If I remember, banderilleros,
matadorS, and toreadorS, and in their
gay costumes they were not uncomely.
Although they bowed first to the re-
served seat section or shady side, their
friends seemed to be on the bleach
ers'' and when they threw heir capes
to cluster of women in one corner
of the sunny side who swelled visibly
with pride and became the cynosure
of all eyes and the object of many
whispered explanations of their
identity among their neighbours, was
reminded of the west side of the
grandstand at the Association League
park where the Co1leysox wives and
sweethearts sit. 1t was not unlike a
ball game at home up to this time,
only that If Dick Cooley saw a crowd
July, he would pinch himself to see
if he were really awake. For the
talk and laughter and the shouts with
which their friends greeted the heroes
and the responses of the men in the
arena were all strangely familiar. And
after the sport began there were cries
of triumph, or derision or approval
from the sides of the ampitheater
which readily interpreted themselves
by the tone in which they were ut
tered, as Good work, old mani"
Rotten or 'tGet an axei" The peo-
pie grew immensely excited and rose
in their seats and shouted and waved
their hats and the women waved their
killed they seemed as delighted with
the CORY sight as the men.
Nothing is so disagreeable as pro-
vincialism and all the time I was
looking on that bull fight I was try
ing to see it with the eyes of the
it and to compare it with our own
sports and give it the benefit of i'm
partial judgment. And yet it was
sickeneing to me and the men in
in the party were equally disguised
and as ready to leave when the first
"act" was over. I was at that Iowa
K. U. football game, thousand years
ago, when an Iowa player was
killed, and I have seen a mans eye
put out in a base ball game, and two
jured in a harness race, and a boy
drowned in q swimming contest, and
a hand blown off in a fireworks dis
play So I can't claim that our ma
tional sports are entirely bloodless
and as harmless as tiddledewinks. And
while some of our party made fuss
about the horses that were killed (two
were gored but they were Immediate
" taken out and knocked in the
head) 7 have been moved to greater
pity by the sight of sick, lame, mis-
treated horses working on our streets
or neglected to die of disease and
horses at the bull fight were poor old
skates, on their last legs, their bones
fairly sticking through their hides,
blind, halt barely able TO stand. The
shame and pity was that. probably,
until purchased for this purpose, ito
die to make a Roman holiday" they
had been hauling cabs or truck wag
ons could not feel so bad for them,
I knew they would be so much better
dead, and their torture was very
brief Also, although one of the BAN
derilleros stun led and fell under
the bulls hoofs it did not seem to me
that the fighters took any more
chances than our ball players do. This
banderillero was down for only an
instant, the other fighters coming i'm
mediately to his assistance, one
pulling the bull by the tail and the
others flirting the red rags in front
of him in order to distract his atten-
ton from the fallen hero, who was
up again promptly, bowling to the
plaudits of the multitude with only
a slight wound from the bulls hoof
on his forehead and he remained ''tn