The Spanish Bull- Fight 199 



competition with professionals. He was thirty years of age when 

 the heavy pay of the matador induced him to risk his life in the 

 arena. 



Whatever may be said of liis failing as an artistic exponent 

 of the art of Cuchilres, he killed his bulls in a resolute manner, 

 and re-animated the interest in the corrida, but his exam}>le 

 was a bad one. Several men emulating his career have en- 

 deavoured to become improvised t07'eros, and, like him, to avoid 

 the step-by-step climb to matador's rank. All have been failures. 

 They wanted to begin where the bull-fighter of old left off. 



Mazzantini has retired, unscathed, from his twenty years of 

 perilous experience in the arena, and is now a civic light in the 

 local government of the city of Madrid. 



Since Guerrita, not a single matador of leading light has 

 arisen. Reverte (1891), Antonio Fuentes (1893), and Bombita 

 (1894) all attracted a numerous public ; and after them we arrive 

 at the lesser lights of the present day, Bombita II. and Machaquito. 



Notwithstanding its present decadence in all the most essential 

 qualities, yet the fiesta de toros is still, if not the very heart- 

 throb of the nation, at least the single all-embracing symbol of 

 the people's taste as distinguished from that of other lands. 

 Racino; has been tried and failed : there are no teemino; crowds 

 at football, nor silent watchers on the cricket-field. La Corrida 

 alone makes the Spanish holiday. 



