BLOOD AND SAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 18 (Supplement)

BLOOD AND SAND.

THE NATIONAL SPORT OF -SPAIN. r SEVILLE: CENTRE OF BULLFIGHTING INDUSTRY. jQ A COSTLY BRIDGE. : ; ; r .' Bull fighters live to a ripe old age, for it is a rare thing, for one of them to receive more than a scratch in the arena. But there ie/yet. to be a; ; lnill fight in Spain in which a bull has emerged alive, declares a correspondent from the ancient Moorish city. As Seville is the centre of the bull fighting industry or sport of Spain— not only do nearly all the * famous matadors come from Andalusia, but this province breeds the best bulls for entertainment purposes—it is not surprising that bull fighting is one of the principal topics of conversation. The daily newspapers have regular departments headed "Toros y. Tereros" ("Bulls and Bull Fighters") and "Sangre y Arena," the Spanish title of Ibanez's novel "Blood and Sand." Coloured posters and three sheete announcing coming fights are in evidence on every side. All classes of society are interested in the sport—or pretend to be. For there is no eurer way of becoming unpopular in Spain than to denounce it. It is eaid that the Queen of. Spain has her opera glasses adjusted so that when the bull fights get too bloody ehe can pretend to be watching the proceedings and yet not see them —the point of this tale being that ehe dare not offend her subjects by refusing to watch horses gored to death.

Many of the bull fighting tales I have heard come under the head of "throwing the bull," but when you see scores of prosperous-looking people motoring out( to a wayside inn on a Saturday night to look over the consignment of bulls that, are scheduled for slaughter on the morrow, you realise what a>. hold the sport has- on the country. ; At the present time/the sport is not what it used to bey because of the inferior, quality-of - the bulls that are

being bred. Spectacular bull" fighting depends on more that the expertness of the bull baiters. The bulls must put up a good show —and that is largely up to'the. breeders. As a matter of fact, the Government .is doing something about it at the moment. At least a royal commission has been appointed to see what can be done to improve the quality of bulls. But it will, be, some before its efforts will show results. .. Here's a Fighter. : Therein one bull, fighter-I would like to see—Canero. He fights the bull on horseback and alone. And his horses are so well trained —they are not blindfolded like the poor nags used by the picadors—that they We the rushes of the bulls without injury. Canero's performance, is really more of aii exhibition of skilful horsemanship than anything else, for when the bull is tired out it is a simple matter for him to plunge his sword into the beast's heart.

It is quite a common occirrence for youthful spectators to jump into the bull ring, during a fight and get the animal, to rush at their red rag. The penalty • is two weeks in : >gaol r but the lads get their names in the newspapers and a few thrills besides. I happened to see one of these lads put on a pretty good impromptu show at a recent bull figlit before he was chased out of the ring and arrested. City of Memories. No matter where you turn -in Seville you encounter some structure that hae figured in your favourite book of operas. I would not go as far as to say that the life in the streets to-day is very much like that pictured in the operas, ofj Mozart or Rossini, but it does give you a thrill to visit the big cigarette ..factory where; the heroine of Prosper Merimee's "Carmen" worked and loved. To be sure there are very few Carmen types in the factory to-day and machines turn out vile cigarettes made of tobacco from the Canary Islands. But the enormous two-storey building is unchanged —and what memories it conjures,, ■up; Near the Tower,.of Gold, built "by the Moors in 1120 when they were defending the port against the Christians, the municipality of Seville is tearing down a new bridge which was just built across the Guadalquiver. Whmen it was completed it was discovered that certain large ships could .not pass under its main arch so it was ordered to be demolished.- However, it was so well constructed that it is costing twice as much to remove it as it cost to erect it.