BULL-FIGHTING

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 11 September 1926, Page 11

BULL-FIGHTING

£ £ T takes a Spaniard to make a mataI dor,” say the Spaniards, but. to-day 1 the Sunday Chronicle is able to give the story of an Englishman who for love of a daughter of old Spain entered the arena in Seville and proved himself equal to the greatest heroes of the ring.

The Englishman, now a prominent figure in British financial circles, was a guest of a Spanish family in Seville, where the daughter of the house, a beautiful senorita then in her twentieth year, took more than a passing interest in her father’s guest.

She had many other suitors among the young sparks of the city, but none more persistent than the Englishman, who had fallen in love with her at sight.

Seville, oven more than Madrid, is the home of bull-lighting, and the talk turned on-this subject. One evening, when three or* four of the girl’s admirers were visiting the house, the old saying: “It takes a Spaniard to make a matador,” was uttered in the Englishman’s hearing. He saw the girl glance at him, and instantly took up the challenge. “Senorita,” he said, “within a month L will enter the ring as a matador and'kill my bull. She shook her head, hut he merely smiled. The next day he went to a school kept by an ex-matador, and began to learn the art of the bull-ring, together with a score or more of other students. They had to learn the march in parade of the bull-fighters, •which is like no other march on earth; they were taught the various passes of the capada, the cape with which the matador baffles the bull in his rushes, and in these lessons one of the class had to act the part of the bull, Avhile the other evaded him.

They wove taught the thrust which ends the life of the fierce brute—and all the time the Englishman had in mind the smile of the senorita, for he knew what would be the prize of success.

Finally, they were given practice in the actual death thrust \on animals doomed for slaughter, and when the Englishman had acquitted himself satisfactorily in this last test he was adjudged a trained matador. Sheer bribery won him the right to enter the arena with two of the hulls in the next great bullfight of Seville, and the senorita was there to watch!

He found that facing a maddened bull in the arena with thousands of spectators about him

CONQUEST OF A SPANISH HEART

ENGLISHMAN WHO TURNED MATADOR

was a different thing from the monotonous drill of the class, or the comparatively easy thrust at a steer destined for the butcher. But lie knew no fear, for he knew how it was done. To keep between the bull and the barrier, to use the capada with brain as well as hands—to win the prize on which his heart was set.

From the throngs surrounding him came roar after roar of applause, for this unknown matador took risks beyond the normal. ■ Death sat on the threatening horns that he faced, but again and again he flicked it aside by a turn of the capada, or by a deft swerve as the great horns flashed past, while one, ate least, among the thousands who watched held her breath, and prayed that his daring might not carry him too far.

lie would have given much to spare a glance toward a certain seat from which she watched, but the final contest with the bull demanded every instant of sight, together with a certain pre-vision that permitted of anticipating the bull’s next move. .

Into this, he found, the use of the capada enters very largely; each: pass which has its name as lias a parry or thrust in fencing, produced a certain effect, induced either swerve or turn, and so enabled him to recover from lunge and charge—but the senorita, watching breathlessly, could not tell what was passing in her. lover’s brain; she saw only the imminent peril in which he had placed himself for the sake of her smile, and shivered in the sunlight as it seemed that nothing could save him. ';• It was beyond question one of the best struggles of the day, from the point of view of the other spectators. So he played his bull on the sand, twisting, eluding, manoeuvring, until at last the brute gave the opportunity for which the man had waited. 1 The Englishman looked round. In one seat, not far back from the barrier, he saw the flick of a mantilla and eyes that smiled on him from behind a lowered fan, and he saw in her smile the reward of his daring. By taking up the age-long challenge, and proving that an Englishman is equal to any Spaniard in the ring—and he proved it fully by killing over a hundred and fifty bulls before he gave it up—lie won the love of his heart as a knight of old won his lady by his prowess in the lists. That evening, with two hulls to his credit and the plaudits of the crowd still ringing in his ears, he went to find her waiting for him.