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About The Rockdale banner. (Conyers, Ga.) 1888-1900 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 1898)
SPAIN’S BRUTAL BULLFIGHTS THE CHABACTEKLSTICS POSTERED BY THE TOREADORS ABE LABGE LY RESPONSIBLE FOB THE DEGENERACY OF THE NATION. to give the bull a smell of blood, that being naturally what he himself is fighting for. Lastly—it must be said, unhappily—it is to give the people themselves a sight of blood. I believe this latter to be absolutely true, in spite of all denials of Span¬ iards. The audi enc e seejps to like the blood of mangled horses! being And now, while the bull is taunted in the ring, almost at the be¬ ginning, the horses, blindfolded, are therefore being slowly ridden around to him. Upon them are mounted the most degraded of ail bull-fighters, the picadores, so little-thought-of by the people themselves that the lowest, cheapest brand of Spanish ‘cigarettes are called, with one consent, the pica- LD SPAIN, despite the disgusting im¬ morality of the thing, knows of no sight more stirring and im¬ posing than the « first part of an ex¬ •. «• pensive bull fight, with the cere¬ monious entrance to the blare of trumpets; the pro¬ cession of historic costumes of crim¬ son, pale blue, white and canary; _ •«f pea green, silvery white and pink; of scarlet, black, dark blue and white— and over all of it the brilliant sun¬ light, the perfumes of spring in the «weet air, and the enthusiasm of a mighty audience that moves and shouts and blazes with excitement. The ring at Tarragona, for example —little, old, lost-to-the-world Tarra¬ gona—gi'&s seats for 17,000 people— more than the entire population of that backward town along the Medi¬ terranean; and yet, the seats are often fall, for the country people for miles around flock in, on foot, on donkeys, asses, horses and in bullock carts. So that when the big band strikes up the old barbaric march, and the thousands on the benches move themselves un¬ easily, and shout down greetings to their favorite fighters, you have a scene before you not to be forgotten. The central idea of a bull-fight, the Spanish will tell the visitor, is to dis¬ play the courage and dexterity of men. It is acknowledged that the bull is more than a man’s match—the bull with his strength, ferocity and sharp (horns, and the man alone,- armed with a sleder sword. Again, it is essential that the bull should be killed with but one single stroke, given while the awordsman, the espada, faces him. This stroke must also be delivered in •one special spot, behind the shoulders, to jienetrate the heart. Should it glance and strike the lungs instead, ao that the bull will drop blood from his mouth, the audience is disgusted, »nd expresses its disgust. All this is delicate and dangerous work, and it requires preparation to make con¬ ditions equal for both parties, man « A .(-j! HI I a SS INSULTING A LAZY BULL. and bull. Besides there must be cere¬ mony and a show. Out of these ne¬ cessities th'e numerous and well-de¬ fined acts and scenes of a bull-fight take their due progression. The bull must first be exereised be¬ fore the audience, that they may take pleasure in his strength. The ani¬ mal is noble, with a pedigree as long as that of many a Don. He is slender, •with small hind-quarters and tremen¬ dous neck aud shoulders. Neverthe¬ less, he is rather small than large. His horns are straight and sharp; and he is quick, tricky and vicious. The ordinary bull-fighters, toreadores, flaunt their cloaks before his face and •scape with difficulty, often being •obliged to jump the fence around the ring. But for the poor horses there is ao escape, and here is where the ill- 4L - i m i si®' 7 //. i t? •m mm/m i id kh V rl ¥ i' * 5 #\v 1 i>i x. *, i LAST GREAT ACT OF THE ESPADA. ness of the stranger takes its sadden *ise. The object of bringing in the horses, early in the game (poor broken-down old creatnres), is really four-fold. It ia first to exhibit the vigor of the bull, when he lifts and tosses them with the most abominable strength. Next, it is to tire the bull a little, so that it will not be impossible for a single man to face him, later on. Thirdly, it is ardly to proceed in detail. Sufficient it will be to say that there have been invented banderillas with firework at¬ tachments, that they may burn after > M J — - it I r 0 1 \ i' EASY TO DEAL WITH A GIDDY BULL. they have been thrust into the bull’s neck! Enough. The time has now arrived for the great act of the matador, or the espada, the most important man, the high professional who has to kill a crazy bull, made monstrously wicked w V ~Tr-~n—'» suf — w A J 9 ■hit,. i 'Tf /C= 'k. n isn jv 0 \ \ I. - O “THE ENTRANCE TO THE BLARE OF TRUMPETS.” dores. It is the trade of these gentle¬ men—who ride in always, it is said, half drunk—to see that the bind-folded horses which they ride are properly ruined by the bull; it is their > trade to spear the bull with a long lance, to irritate him, and to save themselves. They, themselves, are protected on the legs by iron sheathings. After two or four or even eight horses have been gored and tossed and tumbled, and are dragged away dead and bleeding, the trumpet sounds and a very differ¬ ent set of men dash into the wide bull¬ ring. banderilleros. Each These are the one of them has two be-ribboned darts, like little harpoons, in his hand,which he must fix in the bull’s neck to pain him, to infuriate him, and to make him exhibit the agility of men. skill and It is a matter of no little danger; if successful, it almost crazes the animal, giving him the maximum of ferocity with the minimum fof strength. It is also one of the “pret¬ tiest” parts of the corrido de toros; for the bull comes on with a rush to these most nimble and courageous banderil¬ leros, who often must evade him by a single inch. Each evasion and each trick of daring has its name, and is applauded or hissed by the excited thousands on the benches, according to the audacity, coolness and dexterity of the men, or the reverse. These lively fellows, who take ter¬ rible risks, will seat themselves on chairs and let the bull come thunder¬ ing down on them. - Then at the very instant that he would strike them, toss them, mangle them, they rise, plant their harpoons into his neck, and leap aside. The bull must be content to toss the chair. Or they will take a long pole, aud leap over the bull’s back as he comes at them. Or they will kneel down on one knee, with" grace, and tickle the puzzled beast upon his nose with a lace hand¬ kerchief and slip aside from him. Their harpoons, which they jab into his injured aud insulted neck, should make him wild. But if he does not show sufficient wildness, the people cry for “Fire!” And here it is too sickening and cow- by ill-treatment and a thousand goad ings. The bull is weakened, it is true, but he is still so dangerous that half the matadors of history have found their death in the ring. It is in vain that the Spanish de¬ fend their bull-fights as “the heroic games” of their ancestors, “conse¬ crated by antiquity.” The truth is the ancestors of their ancestors long ago abandoned the corrida to paid professionals of low birth. Spanish bull-fights ceased to possess anything of the old chivalry when chivalry it¬ self expired, more than two centuries ago. Apologists of the ring, indeed, claim for the end of “the aristocratic period” a date as late as the accession of the Bourbons, in 1770; but as their ohrouleles are silent concerning the exploits of the Spanish nobility in this regard all through the eight¬ eenth century, there is reasou to give -<&*■ & i mm m I f,)r iy it FRASCUELO AND LAGABTIJO. the date of “the accession of the Bourbons" its mere sentimental value. The chronicles of the ring begin again in 1770, with the name of the plebeian Pedro Bomero; with the Corrida de Toros in full swing as a mercenary show; and with the Spanish P dons content to patronise it in ,hesimp.eaet of p.ying for their twt? .“at^o bnfl ? 8 pSs^nd !4SK! wit a and out-a-profession. Apart from the lack of noble Spanish blood in the bull fighter, ° the degeneraev appears to have u conmsted - , m an exchange of *v, the a woat ea ^+ to Prudently m envelop- anrainn itself itself fnr for the cheaper suit of padded leather and shirt of mail of the time and trade. Pedro Bomero, first, threw aside every kind of protection appearing as obvious disadvantage, hit upon bull by the device of “tiring out" the » whole series of “preliminary under- exer cises," to be performed by and studies. He invented, also, a new very dangerous method of killing the animal, a single sword-blow, which must penetrate a certain spot behind the shoulder of the bull, while the bull-fighter perilously faced him. How much this was “degenerating” from the prudence of the old aristocrats who, in their knightly armor, speared the bull from the baeks of their war horses, and hacked at him, when un seated, with their battle-axes, is a quesUon rather delicate than to answer. During the past twenty years two names have been all-poweriul in the peninsula. Bafael Molina y Sanchez (called Lagartijo) and Salvador San* chez (Frascuelo) have done for their trade what John I/. Sullivan did for the fighting business in America, They refused to fight for the com* paratively small.pay of their predeces sors, and by reason extraordinary of their popularity were able to make terms with the Spanish public and impres arios. The profession is grateful to them to-day, now that they are in tlieir oJd age, and they are still called by courtesy the two stars of Spain. Lagartijo, in particular, was always a ferocious fellow, insisting that the public should have its full of blood and excitement. Nowadays the success of the fight¬ ers does not depend so much on the applause of wealth and Jieauty in the boxes as it does on the fidelity of the respectable middle-class public in the reserved seats of the grada, to say nothing of the yelling populace on the stone benches immediately around the arena. As for the modern Spanish lover, he feels that he is doing a great deal when he pays the admission price to the grada for his sweetheart and her mother. The Spanish lover is, ordinarily, spoony, and the Spanish girl is seemingly—ordinarily, timid to a degree; the Spanish mother is very often pretentious, and the whole mid¬ dle class and lower class population astonishingly democratic and out¬ spoken. This, then, is the bull-fight, and the spirit of the bull-fight audience. The audience is composed of every type of citizen—the respectable and good, as well as the depraved. Little children suck their oranges contentedly while the miserable horses are squealing with pain, their entrails protruding from their ruined bellies. It seems to be only a question of getting used to it. They say you can get used to anything. The Viteinsr Ship. Within a short walk from the palace in Christiania, Norway, is the great University with its museums. The museums we found closed, with the exception of a frame building, in which is one of the most interesting things in all Scandinavia. The vagt master (caretaker) here was a woman; and as she opened the door for us we saw, stretching from one end of the building to the other, the only real viking ship in existence. It is 103 feet long and ten feet wide. It was built somewhere between 800 and a 1000 years ago, and was discovered in 1880, at the mouth of the Christiania Fiord, embedded in blue clay. You know, it was custom¬ ary in the time of the vikings, when a great chief died, to draw his ship up on the beach, build a sort of grave chamber in her, lay him in his rude shelter, with those of his worldly goods which he was supposed to need in the next world, aud make a mound of earth over the whole thing. Some¬ times he would be placed on his ship, which was headed out to sea with all sail on, after being set on fire. The chief who was buried in this vessel must have been a great hero, for the bones of at least twelve horses and six dogs, and the remains of gold articles were found in the ruins. Bob bars had broken into this mound at some time, otherwise there would have been many more interesting relics to show with the ship. —St. Nicholas. The Heliograph. With all its superiority in distances, the heliograph is too uncertain for sole reliance. A passing cloud is sufficient to interrupt the clearest signals, per haps in the critical moment of a battle; or a sun haze may render invisible the rays from the largest mirror; so that, at any time, without a clear atmosphere, the system ii nseless » »not known thaUhe hehographro fT ste m h »? bsen “.«• on sl “P , ‘ b ^e service has noth “S f ? r d .*/“<S ht »P »»>no«pheres »“» accomplishment in dry For sight service at “ e “. the Afshlight appears to be the T^Udon" proved i . nstaQce . of suc1 ^ U8e wasi reported , a fe £ years ago by two British ships, which, while on opposite sides of a high pr omo ntory nine miles iu width, °P v ene< * communication with each J mea n 3 of dot aud dash ca v bghtfc -Lipracott . s. . The Xime It Failed . —5P ^ . jfe j ^ £5 iT&rH | N'H'ij FlTT - ,. j- —r.TU M- 1 I 0% TTT LLL [ i|W > . ~ .1 L fepS , ^ V *** ' Mrs. Callahan—“Don’t yez re mimber Oi told yez th’ marnin’ not to go in swimmin’to-day?” I Patsy Callahan—“Oh, come mudder. an’ den you’re Youse want me ter say yes, j goin’ ter say, ‘Fergit it ! remember de Maine.”—Judge. Mother: Wh t ” tot «wk w» J: K parlor last „ • MaZ s (shyly'): 3 ^ 6 ma.”_Boston 08t -2^avel K ? er u “J 1 ®* Si «pt had w a *** to 1%, an 8 f for stantiy Rtoe walks au 8v ® r<T tjT 1 more than because of nervousne® hc ' Uf <*•a* craggis^^^- l ah Dos*t Toba«o Spit and Sm<a hnik To quit tobacco 6 easily am. Sterling rt*KTBMy$ Remedy Ox, CwS^. member since 1816 and bad V ^ r f' , v ' h ? M won To Cure a ColdhTo^ SSisSXtsSSss n d mu&sdSgg asiliis Dm R. H. Kltme. Ltd^ 931 ArcbS^ No fewer than 1,173 person, W buried in England in Westminster ^ , To Cure Constipation Forever, Take Castxarets Candy Catbartln m, K c. c. c. fail to cure, druggists refund® y"thousand ' sunk 0v , er in 8ixt the United states. oTf^ , a 9 Feed Your Nero Upon rich, pv r \ nourishing blood J J taking Hoo-L Sarsaparilla, and will be free from' those spells old spftir, those sleepless nights and aniy days, those gloomy, deathlike feey those sudden starts at mere notkta those dyspeptic symptoms and blladis , headaches. Hood’s Sarsaparilla hasd® this for many others—it will cure you, Hood’s Sarsaparilla Is America's Greatest Medicine. $1: six fed Hood's Pills cure sick headache. & Hotel Clocks Always Truthful. “When I am traveling I never hoosehoB « the slightest confidence in a iB clock,” writes Robert J. Burdette the Ladles’ Home Journal. “A hotfl dock I can depend upon. There art! too many watches in a hotel—goofil cor-1 watches, watches whose absolute rectness means regulate money to the the traveling commenj cial man who life of this country. A lying clock > would be spotted in a quarter of a sec¬ ond, and the unhappy clerk scourge! with pitiless sarcasms therefor. Is the course of my wanderings up and ( globe I missel I flown this part of the 1 few trains and lecture engagements a depending upon clocks in the homes | 0 f my friends. Having thus paid for the lesson—fifteen or twenty thousand dollars, I think—by my own computa¬ tion of the value of my lectures (set ahead a little bit, you know, it may be s trifle fast; I haven’t time to look up the exact figures), I withdrew all my trust from mantel clocks, the highly ornamented gilt variety with sliver bells or ; dral chimes.” CONSULTING A WOMAN. Mrs. Pinkham’s Advice Inspires Confidence and Hope. Examination by a male physician ia a hard trial to a delicately organized woman. She puts it off as long as she dare, and is only driven to it by fear of cazi * eer, polypus, or some dreadful ill. i Most frequently such a woman leaves a physician's office where she has un¬ & dergone a critical examination with an impression, more or less, of discour¬ Jg! _ PMUfea _____ agement. condi / This tion of the QlgBBSIiill minddestrors ' WssSEMsm Bg&EtSfM the effect of a ad ceiling Lrsc rather Mrs hem noh,. S itat. ll n need "W's told ton woman apdniwhMr c°ri fidentia J* Mrs. pi ° k ^ a j* L yun» Mass., she offers sick . , men ter advice without charge. - 3 Her intimate knowledge of wome troubies wellsprmgofhope,andherwidee^>e makes her ^ ence and skill point the way to heal “ I suffered with ovarian trouble seven years and no doctor knew wh was which the would matter last with for two me. days I had or ^ I thought I would try Lydia E. 1 ham’s \egetable Compound, i ® token seven bottles of it, and am tirely cured.”—M bs. John Fobema-- N. Woodberry Ave., Baltimore. ± • The above letter from Mrs. Fore is only one of thousands.
