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Updated: June 24, 2025
The Spanish see to it that the Sunday bullfights are correct; the French insure the proper social functions; the Germans manage the banks; and the Americans take the profits of the railways, telegraph lines, and flour-mills. As to latitude, Punta Arenas is cold and inhospitable; but for business and social affairs, it is very, very warm, especially in the matter of social affairs.
And this is all we get by our well-meant effort to convince Spaniards of the brutality of bullfights. Must Chicago be virtuous before I can object to Madrid ale, and say that its cakes are unduly gingered? Yet even those who most stoutly defend the bull-fight feel that its glory has departed and that it has entered into the era of full decadence.
The picturesque chatter of the barber, born in Cartagena, the gay, brilliant chromos on the walls representing bullfights, the newspapers from Madrid, forgotten on the divans, and a guitar in one corner made this shop a little bit of Spain for the rovers of the Mediterranean. Before sailing, Ferragut wished to have his beard clipped by this verbose master.
It was enough that all men and women in the Peninsula had once felt it and had formed a national habit of attending bullfights, and as silly subalterns sometimes lay the toe of their boots to a Hindu for the glory of the British Empire keeping the animal creation in its place by kicks and blows to mules and dogs.
But she did not find the recitations frightful, nor the simple routine of life irksome. She was willing to tell everybody who cared to listen what she had seen of French pensions, Italian beggars, or Spanish bullfights.
"Mendoza," he said, "I have seen your Mexican bullfights, and I once witnessed such a spectacle in Madrid. A Spanish bullfight is bad enough, but a Mexican bullfight is the most disgusting and brutal thing imaginable. Usually your bull is frightened and runs around seeking some avenue of escape from the torturers who pursue him, assailing him with their banderillos.
Then, in the square in front of the Cathedral, a great flock of pigeons is loosed into the air. These are homing pigeons, and they fly back to their homes in every part of Spain, carrying the message that the harvest is about to begin. There's dancing in the streets all night, and the next day there are bullfights, races and more dancing. Then the people all go to work to harvest the grapes.
The archbishop granted his license, requiring that the banns should be published only once. The city made a festival on the wedding-day, the corregidor being much liked, and there were illuminations, bullfights, and tournaments. The old woman remained in the house of her pretended grandchild, not choosing to part from Preciosa.
For these song sequences were sung by way of accompaniment to the theatrical productions. The Chinese theatre had developed from two sources from religious games, bullfights and wrestling, among Turkish and Mongol peoples, which developed into dancing displays; and from sacrificial games of South Chinese origin.
The other thing that kept us was the bullfight. In these islands, which belonged to Spain, they had bullfights every Sunday. It was on a Friday that we arrived there; and after we had got rid of the able seaman we took a walk through the town. It was a very funny little town, quite different from any that I had ever seen.
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