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Updated: June 11, 2025
Let no one sneer at the bruisers of England what were the gladiators of Rome, or the bull-fighters of Spain, in its palmiest days, compared to England's bruisers? Pity that ever corruption should have crept in amongst them but of that I wish not to talk, let us still hope that a spark of the old religion, of which they were the priests still lingers in the breasts of Englishmen.
Ten or a dozen bull-fighters boarded in one place near the bull-ring a large, square, two-story adobe house; a grand house, with walls painted in colors and splendid high rooms arranged around a patio inside.
The first feat of the bull-fighters was to plant a rosette on the shoulders of the animal with a barb implanted in his flesh, which enraged him more, with colored ribbons, two or three feet in length, attached to the rosette, which was flying in the air as he went around, indicating to the audience the success of the feat. Then the same feat was performed on the other shoulder.
A flourish of trumpets now sounded, and announced the arrival of the king and queen, which was the signal for the immediate clearing of the arena and commencement of the performance by the quadrilla, or procession of bull-fighters. These entering at the end of the building opposite, advanced to the front of the royal box and bowed.
The audience all arose in excitement, expecting to see him torn to pieces, and crying out for him to escape. The professional bull-fighters got their red flags and drew the bull off, and the greaser escaped, and seemed to be surprised at the excitement of the audience. They succeeded in getting the bull out, and dragging out the dead horse, and letting in a less ferocious one.
'Big leaguers of some kind, thinks Cogan, and asked the fruit-stand keeper who they were, and the fruit-seller said 'Torero. "'Torero? Torero? Ah-h-h' Cogan recalled his 'Spanish Without A Master' 'Ah-h-h, of course, Toreros Toreadors' he remembered the opera 'Carmen' bull-fighters. Cogan got up and followed them.
From the gay Andaluz we derive most of our ideas of the Spanish peasant; but he is a complete contrast to the dignified Castilian or the brusque Montañese. From this province, given over to song, dancing, and outdoor life, come almost without exception the bull-fighters, whose graceful carriage, full of power, and whose picturesque costume, make them remarkable wherever seen.
This, after breakfast, I managed to do, though only a second-class one, all "boletiere de sombra" or seats in the shade, being already let; the consequence being that at the end of the performance most of the skin had peeled off my face. The Spanish bull-fighters have risen considerably in the social scale during the past century, for they were formerly denied the burial rite.
Another burst of music, a great fanfare of trumpets, and then slowly in triumphal procession the picadors, mounted bull-fighters with lances, entered the ring.
The champions were poor nobles, of good blood but scanty substance, who fought for glory and pensions, and had quadrilles of well-trained bull-fighters at their stirrups to prevent the farce from becoming tragedy. The royal life of Isabel of Bourbon was inaugurated by the spilled blood of one hundred bulls save one. The gory prophecy of that day has been well sustained.
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