I SPAIN'S BRUTAL BULLFIGHTSI \f/ >% THE CHARACTERISTICS FOSTERED BY THE TOREADORS ARE LARGE LY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEGENERACY OF THE NATION. 7?t % LD SPAIN, despite Br « the disgusting im ■ ■ morality of the M thing, knows of no sight more stirring and im posing than the * first part of an ex i pensive bull fight, with the cere monious entrance to the blare of trumpets; the pro cession of historic costumes of crim son, pale blue, ■white aud canary; of pea green, silvery white and pink ; of scarlet, black, dark blue and white— and over all of it the brilliaut sun light, the perfumes of spring in the sweet air, and the enthusiasm of a mighty audience that moves and shouts and blazes with excitement. The ring at Tarragona, for example —little, old, lost-to-the-world Tarra gona—gives seats for 17,000 people— more than the entire population of that backward town along the Medi terranean; and yet, the seats are often full, for the country people for miles around flock in, on foot, on donkeys, asses, horses and in bullock carts. So that when the big band strikes up the old barbaric march, aud the thousands •11 the benches move themselves uu easily, and shout down greetiugs to their favorite fighters, you have a scene before you not to be forgotten. . The central idea of a bull-fight, the Spanish will tell the visitor, is to dis play the courage and dexterity of men. It is acknowledged that the bull is more than a man's match—the bull with his streugth, ferocity and sharp horns, and the man- alone, armed with a sleder sword. Again, it is essential that the bull should be killed with but one single stroke, given while the | swordsman, the espada, faces him. This stroke must also be delivered in one special spot, behind the shoulders, to penetrate the heart. Should it glance and strike the lungs instead, so that the bull will drop blood from his mouth, the audience is disgusted, and expresses its disgust. All this is delicate and dangerous work, and it requires preparation to make con ditions equal for both parties, man INSULTING A LAZY BULL,. and bull. Besides there must be cere mony and a show. Out of these ne cessities the numerous aud well-de fined acts aud scenes of a bull-fight take their due progression. The bull must first be exercised be fore the audience, that they may take pleasure iu his strength. The ani mal is noble, with a pedigree as long as that of many a Don. He is slender, with small hind-quarters and tremen dous neck and shoulders. Neverthe less, he is rather small thau large. His horns are straight aud sharp; and he is quick, tricky and vicious. The ordinary bull-fighters, toreadores, flaunt their cloaks before his face aud escape with difficulty, often being obliged to jump the fence around the ring. But for the poor horses there is no escape, and here is where the ill ness of the stranger takes its sudden rise. The object of bringing in the horses, early in the game (poor broken-down old creatures), is really four-fold. It is first to exhibit the vigor of the bull, when he lifts aud tosses them with the most abomiuable strength. Next, it is to tire the bull a little, so that it will not be impossible for a single man to face him, later on. Thirdly, it is " LAST GREAT ACT OF THE E3PADA. to give the bull a smell of blood, that being naturally what he himself is fighting for. Lastly—it must be said, unhappily—it is to give the people themselves a sight of blood. I believe this latter to be absolutely true, in spite of all denials of Span iards. The audience seems to like the blood of mangled horses! And now, while the bull is being taunted in the ring, almost at the be ginning, the horses, blindfolded, are therefore being slowly ridden aronnd to him, Upon them are mounted t'ie most degraded of all bull-fighters, the picadores, so little-thought-of by the people themselves that the lowest, cheapest brand of Spanish cigarettes are called, with one consent, the pica dores. It is the trade of these gentle men —who ride iuialways, it is said, half drunk—to see that the bind-folded horses which they ride are properly ruined by the bull; it is their trade to spear the bull with a long lance, to irritate him, and to save themselves. They, themselves, are protected on the legs by iron slieathings. After two or four or even eight horses have been gored and tossed and tumbled, and are dragged away dead and bleeding, the trumpet souuds aud a very difi'er eut set of men dash into the wide bull ring. "THE ENTRANCE TO THE BLAKE OF TRUMPETS." These are the banderilleros. Each one of them has two be-ribboned darts, like little harpoons, in his hand,which he must fix in the bull's neck to pain him, to infuriate him, aud to make him exhibit the agility of men. It is a matter of no little skill and danger; if successful, it almost crazes the animal, giving him the maximum of ferocity with the minimum of strength. It is also one of the "pret tiest" parts of the corrido de toros; for the bull comes on with a rush to these most nimble aud courageous banderil leros, who often must evade him by a single inch. Each evasion aud each trick of daring has its name, and is applarded or hissed by the excited thousands oil the benches, according to the audacity, coolness aud dexterity of the men, or the reverse. These lively fellows, who take ter rible risks, will seat themselves on chairs and let the bull come thuuder iug down on them. Then at the very instant that he would strike them, toss them, mangle them, they rise, plant their harpoons into his neck, and leap aside. The bull must be content to toss the chair. Or they will take a long pole, aud leap over the bull's back as lie comes at them. Or they will kneel down on one knee, with grace, and tickle the puzzled beast upon his nose with a lace hand kerchief and slip aside from him. Their harpoons, which they jab into his injured and insulted neck, should make him wild. But if he does not show sufficieut wildness, the people cry for "Fire!" And here it iB too sickening and cow ardly to proceed in detail. Sufficieut it will be to say that there been invented bauderillas with firework at tachments, that they may burn after they have been thrust iuto the bull's neck! Enough. The time has now arrived for the great act of the matador, or the espada, the most important man, the high professional who has to kill a crazy bull, made monstrously wicked by ill-treatment and a thousand goad iugs. The bull is weakene /it is true, but he is still so dange /us that half the matadors of history have found their death in the ring. It is in vain that the Spanish de fend their bull-fights as "the heroic games" of their ancestors, "conse crated by antiquity." The truth is the ancestors of their ancestors long ago abandoned the corrida to paid professionals of low birth. Spanish bull-fights ceased to possess anything of the old chivalry when chivalry it self expired, more than two centuries ago. Apologists of the ring, indeed, claim for the end of"the aristocratic period" a date as late as the accession of the Bourbons, in 1770; but as their chronicles are silent concerning the exploits of the Spanish nobility in EASY TO DEAL WITH A GIDDY BULL. this regard all through the eight eenth century, there is reason to give the date of"the accession of the Bourbons" its mere sentimental value. The chronicles of the ring begin again in 1770, with tho name of the plebeian Pedro Romero; with | the Corrida de Toros in full swing as a mercenary show, and with the Spanish dons content to patronize it in the simple act of paying for then seats. Romero found the national sport "degenerated" to a simple conflict be tween a bull aud professional-with ont-a-professiou. Apart from the lack of noble Spanish blood in the bull fighter, the degeneracy appears to have consisted in an exchange of the heavy armor in which chivalry was wont to prudently envelop itself for the cheaper suit of padded leather and shirt of mail of the time aud trade. Pedro Romero, first, threw aside every kind of protection, appearing as a gymnast, light, graceful aud exact; aud secondly, to counterbalance the obvious disadvantage, hit upon the device of "tiring out" the bull by a whole series of "preliminary exer cises,". to be performed by under studies. He invented, also, a new aud very dangerous method of killing the animal, a single sword-blow, which must penetrate a certain spot behind the shoulder of che bull, while the bull-fighter perilously faced him. How much this was "degenerating" from the prudence of the old aristocrats who, iu their knightly armor, speared the bull from the backs of their war horses, aud hacked ut him, when un seated, with their battle-axes, is a question rather delicate than difficult to answer. During the past twenty years two FRASCCELO AND LAGARTIJO. names have been all-poweriul in the peninsula. Rafael Molina y Sanchez (called Lagartijo) aud Salvador San chez (Frascttelo) have done for their trade what John L. Sullivan did for the fighting business in America. They refused to fight for the com paratively small pay of their predeces sors, aud by reason of their popularity were able to make extraordinary terms with the Spanish public and impres arios. The profession is grateful to them to-day, now that they are in their old age, and they are still called by courtesy the two stars of Spain. Lagartijo, in particular, was always a ferocious fellow, insistiug that the public should have its full of blood and excitement. Nowadays the success of the fight ers does not depend so much on the applause of svealth and beauty in the boxes as it does on the fidelity of the respectable middle-class public in the reserved seats of the grada, to say nothing of tjhe yelliug populace on the stone benches immediately around the arena. As for the modern Spanish lover, he feels that he is doing a great deal when he pays the admission price to the grada for his sweetheart 'aud her mother. The Spanish lover is, ordinarily, spoony, and the Spanish girl is seemingly—ordinarily, timid to a degree; the Spanish mother is very often pretentious, and the whole mid dle class and lower class population astonishingly democratic and out spoken. This, then, is the bull-fight, and the spirit of the bull-fight audience. The audience is composed of every type of citizen—the respectable and good, as well as the depraved. Little children suck their oranges contentedly while the miserable horses are squealing with pain, their entrails protruding from their ruined bellies. It seems to be only a question of getting used to it. They say you can get used to anything. YOUNC HERO OF SANTIAGO. Charles Escudero, of Ohio, Age Fourteen, Carried Water to the Wounded on San Juan Hill. Although Charles Escudero, four teen years old, doesn't realize it yet, time will show that as the water boy of the Ninth Infantry in Cuba he was as much a hero as any man who car ried a gun in the wild fight and fearless charge np San Juan hill. Charlie arrived at New York City, a few days ago, on the transport Lou isiana and was shipped to his home, Columbus, Ohio, by the Children's Aid Society. Charlie looked like a picturesque re conceutrado, wearing a regulation brown cavalry hat, an old brown jacket and a pair of trousers much the worse for the Santiago campaign. The rem nants of the shoes that carried him up the rocky hill of San Juan held his feet, and a blue flannel shirt, much too large, was lapped about him. His father was a bugler in the Ninth Infantry, which Charlie managed to join at Tampa. There he was smug - gled on a transport, and when he got to Cuba he was told he might act as water boy for the Ninth Infantry. He was in all the fighting at Santi ago and wherever there was a man of the Ninth with his gun there the water boy went at the call of the sol dier. Charlie is modest in his stories of what he did at San Juan hill. "I carried water to the soldiers. My father is a bugler and I was with him nights. When there was fight ing I had to work. When I saw our men getting killed I wished I had a gun, but I iiad to carry water. I had four canteens. One held about two quarts. The n\gu firing would see me and yell to ask if I'd got any water. If they were all empty I went to the creek audi tilled them. At the last it got a long way to go. 'Wasn't I afraid?' I ju3t thought I'd get CHARLES ESCUDERO. (He inarched beside bis soldier father and gave water to the men as they fought before Santiago.) killed, and we'd all get killed that day, the bullets came so thick. I saw men I knew get hit. "I kept run of my father by the bugle, mostly. Did I see many wounded? Yes, I carried water ta 'em when I could. Sometimes I had to pour it into their mouths, but most of the men I saw wounded were able to get on their elbows to drink. "I've got plenty of relics for my mother—Spanish cartridges and otber Spanish relics. I'm going back to school. I'm in the fifth grade." The boy seems to have suddenly be come a,jed by his experiences. , He is only a little chap, with big brown eyes and long lashes, and ho says he does so want to see his mother and sisters. Consumption of COHI. The consumption of coal per head of population is lowest in Austria, where it is only one-sixtli ton per annum,and highest iu Great Britain, where each person averages three and three-tenths tons each year. In the United States the average is two and one-fourth tons a year. The Time It Failed. Mrs. Callahan—"Don't yez re mimber Oi told yez th' marnin' not to go in swimmiu' to-day?" Patsy Callahan—"Oh, come off mudder. Youse want me ter say yes, an' den you're goin' ter say, 'Fergit it an' remember de Maine."—Judge. Russia is said to own 3,000,000 horses—nearly one-half of the whole i number in existence. ffOR FARM AND GARDEN. £ \rwww-wvwwww'w www Topdressing Meadow*. In topdressing meadows with fresh yard manure, directly after mowing, thpre is naturally some loss by evap oration, but this is not nearly as great as is generally supposed, and this is also wore than counterbalanced by the protection it provides against sun and drouth. In winter aud early spring the loss from evaporation is but infinitesimal. If the manure is properly composted it may be applied as a topdressing at any time without danger of loss. Care of House Well*. There should be au enclosed build ing over every well from which water is to be taken for family use. Multi tudes of insects and even small ani mals fall into the well if it is exposed to the air and has no curb around it. So, too, there is always much dust blown into it, and the rays of the sun shining down make the water too warm to use during hot weather. Every time a bucket is lowered into the water it carries aoine of the warmth it has absorbed from contact with the summer air. Season for Deep Plowing. If there is ever a time when deep plowing is advisable it is in summer, especially if some green manure can be turned under the furrow. This will heat rapidly in hot .weather, aud the gases from its fermentation rising through the soil will mellow it more than can be done by the most thor ough cultivation when such land is deep plowed in spring. In fact most spring plowing ought to be very shallow,as the air is not warm enough to warm through a deep furrow, and therefore, if vegetation is then deeply plowed in it rots very slowly. Trelli.H for Tomatoes. While the tomato can be and often fc grown with its vines lying on the ground, the fruit ripens more evenly and perfectly, besides producing a larger crop, if the vines are supported by a trellis of some kind. It may be nothing more than a stick forked like a "y" and with a long enough stein to set firmly in the ground. But if the soil is rich aud the tomato vines are heavy, a row of strong stakes with a wire wound around each at the height of eighteen inches will give better satisfaction. When the vines turn to grow downwards the part be low will blossom aud fruit more abund antly than before. Jnnprtlcldp for Plant*. Cosmos, a French scientific review says that a South American farmer has recently made an accidental discovery of great value to gardeners and flor ists. It was to the effect that leaves of the tomato plant will drive insects away from other plants. He covered tomato leaves over some young shrubs he wished to protect from the sun and from small iusocts, and was delighted to find that the latter cleared out as soon as they got the odor of the to mato leaves. He then extended the same treat ment to au entire row of young peach trees, and his success was complete. To render the process more simple he tried a decoction of the fresh tomato leaves as a spray on otliei 1 trees and shrubs aud found that he had a per fectly effective weapon which cost practically nothing. He nlso found that a spray of tho same kind would keep flies ofl' hfc horses. liaising Seedlings. The process of raising plants of various kinds from seeds extends over the greater portion of the year, and no time is more important * than the present in this respect. There are many plants of which seeds can be sown now with better prospects of success than at any other, aud amongst them may be noted calcoolarias, prim ulas, cyclamens and cinerarias, all of them being great favorites with ama teur growers. Of course, where pos sible, the boxes, pots or pans of seeds must be placed in the greenhouse, but a fair proportion will germinate in a warm window if they are care fully looked after. Use light soH.and water it well prior to sowing the seeds, which need not be covered with soil. Place on the receptacle a piece of glass and over that brown paper or damp moss, and, until the seeds vejetate, no further attention will be required be yond wiping the glass quite dry each morning. As soon as the tiny plants can be seen the paper must be re moved, and the glass slightly tilted. As they attain size, pricking oft' and eventually potting will be necessary, and every effort should bo made to keep the plants constantly growing.— Household Words. Skim Milk for Chicken*. With the purpose of studying the effect of skim milk diet on young growing chickens an experiment was conducted at the Indiaua agricultural experiment station in which two lots of chickens were under observation. There were ten chickens of two breeds in each lot, ranging from four to six weeks of age at the beginning of the •xperiment. Each lot received the same food, care and treatment, ex cepting one was fed all the skiin milk wanted, while the other was given none. The grain fed consisted of two parts crushed corn, one part brai. and one part ground oats. They were also fed cracked bone, cabbage and lettuce. When the experiment began the total weight of one lot of chickens was only one-halt' au ouuee more than the other. The experiment lasted from July 11 to September 5. The results of the feeding show that the chickens fed milk anil grata ate some considerable more grain than did those receiving no milk. The re sults also show that the chickens of lot one, receiving no milk, made an average weekly gain of 2.62 ounces, while those fed milk made a gain per week of 4.46 ounces, or over one fourth pound. The chickens fed milk made a more rapid and uniform gain than those fed grain only. The gen eral results of the feeding in every way seemed to show the superior in fluence of the skim milk on the growth of the birds.—American Agricultur ist. Injurious \T«p(U, From time to time this country is startled by publications issued from high schools and colleges as to the appearance of this or that weed iu some localities and warning cultiva tors against them. Learned and long descriptions nro given of these particular weeds mul general alarm is excited by a supposed new trouble. Very few of these new weeds are worthy, however, of a thought, so far as particular cultiva tion of the soil is concerned. The cultivator expects to hoe and cultivate among his crop, and one weed is no more to him than another. This is especially true of annual weeds, which do not flower until after the cultivator has been through. The prickly let tuce is an illustration of this; its bo tanical name is lactuca scariola. Con tinuous warning against its appear ance is heard everywhere, but it does not come into flower until July, and long before that the cultivator has destroyed it. No cultivator need tear any annual weed. Serious trouble comes from those which have running root stocks. In that case every little piece of root will make a new plant. In this list we might name the Cana dian thistle, the English bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), the so-called sachaline (Polygonum sachaliueuse, Solanum Cavoliuaum) and the couch grass (Triticum lepens). And even these can be destroyed by two or three successive hoeiugs or cultivat ings. It is an exceptional case when a plant lives without leaves duriug one season. The old question of dealing with destructive weeds is a very simple one—we have either to lioe them out before they have a chance of making seeds or prevent them from having perfect leaves dur ing one season's growth. The intelli gent cultivator knows this so well that he is not alarmed by the appearance of ft new weed, but rather enjoys it as it adds somewhntto his botanical knowledge.—Meehan's Monthly. Diili} 1 Precautions. Shade in pastures, either from trees and sheds, is essential in midsummer to keep the cows from becoming fev erishly overheated to the detriment of the quality of the milk. During my dairy experience I have encount ered a great deal of tninted milk di rectly attributable to the overheating of cows. Keep them as cool as pos sible and remove all exciting factors, such as driving them to and from the pasture' with dogs, etc. When it comes to the Ciire of milk, hot weather has no terrors for a dairy man fully prepared and willing to in telligently combat its deleterious ef fects. The hotter the weather the more prolonged should be your appli cation of hot water in sterilizing milk utensils. Placing the tin milk pans, pails and cans iu the sun after wash ing was formerly thought to have no more influence than simply to dry them. Now it is known that follow ing rigorous scalding a thorough sun bath of all dairy utensils destroys any lurking bacteria that might quickly propagate and ruin milk quality. 11l smells about a cow stable multiply with amazing rapidity during the heated term. With cows milked there twice a day it means a dangerous menace to milk. If you cannot keep the atmosphere of your stable as sweet smelling as that of your pasture, milk the cows in the pasture every time. Attend to the care of milk as soon as it has been drawn from the cow. To let it stand about in pail» to wait convenience is dangerous; to damp a hundred pounds or more of it freshly milked into a narrow cau is perni cious. ' Milk should always be aerated and cooled sufficiently to keep it fresh twelve hours before it is ever stored in bulk. No better way can be de vised for tainting fresh milk quickly and effectually tha - i by plunging a vessel of it into cold water. The re sulting taint is commonly spoken of as smothered milk. If you do not possess ice you should wet down th« floor and wa.ls of your dairy room several times a da'y with cold water. This will materially aid in keeping th» atmosphere of the apartment cool and sweet even during the hottest days. Good, firm butter can be produced in July as well as in less heated months if you keep the thermometer in your dairy room as close to sixty degrees as possible. In this apart ment secure free ventilation with a low temperature, especially at night. If there is cold running water 011 yoixi premises ntilize it for the dairy's good in hot weather. Pipe it to your milk house. Churning should always be done early iu the day before th« warmth of the sun has made its in fluence felt. Isy following this plan you ought not to be troubled with butter coming soft, even if you possess no ice.—Ueorge E. Newell in Oranga Judd Farmer. Wlfc'n Hath Money In Turkey. Among the Turks bath money forma an item in every marriage contract, the husband engaging tc allow his wife • certain sum for bathing pur poses. If it be withheld, she has only togo before the cadi and turn her slipper upside down. If the com plaint be not theu redressed it is a sufficient grouu.l for divorce.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers