El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-08-02

I in his honor The Festival of Bulls, y
and the arena must have been slippery
with the blood Of horses and bulls
when the curtain was rung down upon
the revel
Ferdinand's Celebration.
The traditions of that gala celebra-
tion fired Ferdinand VII with ambi-
ton to eclipse its glory. When his
death was near and he called upon
Spain to swear allegiance to his
daughter Isabel. then in swaddling
clothes. he held festival of bulls that
was satisfactorily sanguinary. The
king and court occupied balconies
overhangfng the plaza in which Philip
and Charles had witnessed the bull
killing, 200 years before. A full 100
bulls received the coup de grace on
this occasion. and tons upon tons Of
carcasses were dragged from the plaza
by mules whose hoofs were crimsoned
by their blood.
AS long as the Spaniard has any
thing to sell or pawn he is rich enough
to secure his "billett" and sally gayly
forth to feast his eyes upon gore, even
IL he doesn't know what he will feast
his stomach upon when he leaves the
plaza The motley throng that moves
toward the gates Of the plaza is as
animated as a multitude of Americans
bound for baseball park. and almost
as colorful in costuming as a crowd
Of indians going to the races in Bonn
bay or Calcutta
The extremely poor who cannot ac-
tually witness the slaughter must con-
tent themselves with hearing the
shouting and hearing the returns"
There are no knot holes in the walls
of the Plaza de Toros because they
are made Of stone. There are no trees
in which the gamins may perch to see
the game. They can only hear the roar
Of the bloody minded barbarians with
in the enclosure where the rich are
paying as much to sit In "palcos" as
tough American sport with solitaire
diamond In his shirt front pays to see
a prize fight from box in Nevada
The "bleachers" are filled at 20
cents a seat. and sun-cooked hoi poll
loi pack them like sardines IN a can.
Fifteen thousand men and women In
the amphitheater see the bulls in its
sanded center driven mad by trained
torturers and killed when blind with
rage and pain. receiving the coup de
grace as grateful relief from suffer
ing.
OF course everyone knows that there
is no equality in the contest A few
miserable. spiritless. blindfolded horses
Of a .picadore. chulo, a banderillero or
matador is a remote contingency.
The lover Of fair play who hopes to
see the bull gore one Of his human
termentors Is disappointed II there
were great probabilities IN that direc-
ton the Spaniards could hire no bull
baiters to try their fortunes in the
plaza. for your bull fighter is a prae-
cal minded person who is getting his
living, not seeking his death.
Play Shows Dispositions.
II Is when you see the Spaniard at
play that you understand most clear
" why he is poor at the business of
government - Brutality is nothing more
than blindness to the virtue Of Justice
The Spaniard at the top has no more
consideration for the Spaniard at the
bottom than all Spaniards have for the
cab horse and the bull. II the country
ever becomes a democratic republic
like its neighber beyond the Pyrenees
there will be more common schools
and no bull rings.
Tomorrow-Madrid's Great Art CAL
lery