A CUBAN COCK-PIT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 210, 10 September 1897, Page 2

A CUBAN COCK-PIT.

A BRUTAL. PASTIME.

After paying a dollar-fuerte (pillared with the Pillars of Hercules), they (the American Consul and Dor. Enrique) were admitted into the galleries which encircled the sawdust*' ■overed arena edged with wooden -eats (says "Public Opinion") The T-alleries were filled -with A PROMISCUOUS CROWD of countrymen, negroes, clerks, and a' few gentlemen ,an old priest looking calmly on the babbling crowd.: Around the edge of the pit sat se. -ral ■ountrymen with their birds by their, ?ides. Two of the competitors were, .standing before the weigher, who was r-ngaged weighing a bird placed in a ding, balanced by a long arm with a weight, a primitive and picturesque ; iair of scales held with even justice >y the umpire. When two birds were ,'ound to be cf equal weight, their respective owners began to trim up their spurs with their daggers; and, ■it a word from the timpire, the own-u-s uncovered the heads of their birds, and the rivals were dropped into the middle of the arena, thefeathers having been previously plucked from their necks, and THEIR COMBS TRIMMED and hardened wdth rum. The umpire then took his seat, and the crowd in the galleries grew wild with excitement as the birds eyed each other, the people yelling and betting, holding up their fingers to indicate the j amount of the bet, crying ten to six j on the black, or evens on the white, i or an ounce to half an ounce on the J black. The two birds continued to j eye each other, or made feints of j pretending to pick up grain, when j suddenly they dashed at each other, j and; the black cock nipped the white one' by the comb, the white one free- \ ing himself by ducking. "Two ounces to one on the black," 1 shrieked a negro; but the white bird, 1 as if hearing the bet, flew at the black | bird and knocked him over, gl.ing J him p A GOOD SPUR THRUST * * j that drew blood. The betting and ] gesticulations grew more furious, and the birds began to fight in deadly ear-' | nest, until they were covered" with § blood and dust, when their owners, ] having filled their own mouths with j rum, seized their birds and spurted ■ the rum over their heads, then wiped | the blood off with their handker- I chiefs, replacing them in the pit After this refresher the fowls fought | more furiously ,dods*ing and nippi**? • and spurring, when "at last the white [;., cock thrust his sptir through the eye it. and into the brain of the black cock. | which fell dead amid hisses, shrieks, | curses aud cheers.