-ring,
and other amusements equally brutal and disgraceful. If the _corrida de
toros_ was ever as bad as it has been described by some, it has improved
very much of late years, and most of its revolting features are
eliminated. The pack of dogs, which used to be brought in when a bull
was dangerous to the human fighters, has long been done away with. The
_media luna_, which we are told was identical with the instrument
mentioned in _Joshua_, is no longer tolerated to hamstring the
unfortunate bull; and if a horse is gored in the fair fight, there are
men especially in attendance to put him out of his misery at once. It is
doubtful whether the animal suffers more than, or as much as, the
unhappy favourites, that are sent alive, and in extremest torture, to
Amsterdam and other foreign cities, to be manufactured into essence of
meat and such-like dainties, after a life of cruelly hard work in our
omnibuses and cabs has made them no longer of use as draught animals.

The bull-fighter of to-day is by no means drawn from the dregs of the
people; there is, at any rate, one instance of a man of good birth and
education attaining celebrity as a professional _torero_. He risks his
life at every point of the conflict, and it is his coolness, his
courage, his dexterity in giving the _coup de grace_ so as to cause no
suffering, that raise the audience to such a pitch of frenzied
excitement. I speak wholly from hearsay, for I have myself only
witnessed a _corrida de novillos_--in which the bulls are never killed,
and have cushions fixed on their horns--and a curious fight between a
bull and an elephant, who might have been described as an "old
campaigner," in which there was no bloodshed, and much amusement. My
sympathies always went with the bull,--who, at least, was not consulted
in the matter of the fight,--as I have seen the popular _espada_, with
his own particular _chulo_, a mass of white satin and gold embroidery,
driving out to the bull-ring on the afternoon of a _fiesta_, bowing with
right royal grace and dignity to the plaudits of the people. I was even
accused of having given the evil eye to one well-known favourite as he
passed my balcony, when I wished, almost audibly, that the bull might
have his turn for once in a way that afternoon. And he had; for the
popular _espada_ was carried out of the ring apparently dead, the
spectators came back looking white and sick, and I felt like a very
murderess until I learned later th