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76 PAGES AND THREE SUPPLEMENTS
VOL. XX.
No. r6.
Published Every Saturday at 3 East Fourteenth Street.
From A Traveler's
Note Book.
A DKSIRK
THE
TO
SPORT
SHE A BULL
FIGHT
GRATIFIED.
POSSESSES A STRANGE FASCINA-
TION— A STORY TOLD ON THE ROAD FROM
VERA
CRUZ
MULE
THE
TO
THE
ORIZABA
EFFECTS
A PECULIAR
OF
REFRESHMENTS AND
SARY OF MEXICO
TEQUILA.
COMMIS-
HOT TAMALKS
AND THE RESULT
POP WINS-
LOW AND TOBASCO ARE NOT
IN
IT
A
STORY
CALIFORNIA
OF
A
COLONEL.
HOW HE RODE TO THE CENTRE OF THE RIVER.
WAITING AT LAREDO—THE MAN WHO HAD
KILLED
OVER
TWO
THE
" GREASERS*'-—TRAVEL
"SUNSET
ROUTE."
HERE was a strong desire on
my part when I first went to
Mexico to be present at a
bull fight, and when I re-
turned from Vera Cruz I had
that desire gratified. Through
the courtesy of« Mr. Heuer, I
was present at one of the biggest fights
which has occurred in recent years in the
Republic. I had contracted a fever at
Vera Cruz owing to the tremendous climat-
ic changes which I had undergone during a
short time. My bones were aching, and I
was suffering untold agony, but still I
would not permit physical suffering to in-
terfere with my witnessing the bull fight,
which was the first and probably will be the
last that I shall ever see. It is a cruel sport
notwithstanding that it possesses that fas-
cination which always attracts when hu-
man life is in danger.
The afternoon was warm, and the bright
sun did not deter the thousands from filling
the amphitheatre. The black Spanish bulls
were full of fight as were the Matadors
from Madrid. I can't say that I had any
special desire to act as a substitute for
either Matadors the Toreadors or Picadors.
They seemed to have no waste time on
their hands as they were torturing and at
the same time evading the horns of the
angry bulls. The poor horses on which the
Picadors rode armed with long lances were
not very fortunate. They were ripped up
and gored without the slightest considera-
tion of the fact that they were blindfolded.
When the favorite Matador would deliver
the final stroke to the angry Taurus the
c
New York, April 20,1895.
rowd would simply grow wild with en-
thusiasm, which showed clearly the popu-
larity of the sport in Mexico. Hats, canes,
gloves and cigars would be tossed indis-
criminately into the ring. Matadors seem to
be great favorites with the people; quite as
much as famous actors are in our country.
They excite like enthusiasm to that created
over the winners in a game of foot ball.
* «
*
The refreshments and commissary of
Mexico; well, that reminds me, the late
Judge Gray, Minister to Mexico, said that
to get accustomed to that was one of the
most difficult tasks of his official life. To
a man from Kentucky this task is doubly
difficult. He cannot step into a palace of
art and pleasure and find any brand of
whisky with which long usage has made
him familiar. The drinks and the eatables
are unlike anything he ever saw before, and
some of them, he will declare, after an in-
troduction—unless said introduction be
performed with a good deal of tact—he
never wants to see again. In the East I
have seen what purported to be hot tamales
sold to the homeward bound theatre-goers,
but they were not even second cousins to
the tamale rampant upon its native heath.
The Eastern article is a mild concoction of
chicken and corn meal, slightly seasoned
with red pepper to give it a faint zest, but
the Mexican variety is compounded of
pork, meal, and ground pods of the Mexican
chili, and is robust in size and flavor. I
passed a tamale booth one night, and spied
a "tenderfoot" friend of mine standing
near it, working his jaws spasmodically,
while tears were chasing each other down
his cheeks.
"Hello," said I; "what's the matter?"
"Eating fire," said he. "Have a coal?"
as he held out a handful of tamales. "Now,
I'm used to these things at home, you
know," he went on; "but I think the cook
must have got his meal bag and pepperbox
mixed this time."
I offered to take him around and get him
a Mexican dish that would cool him off,
and he jumped at the offer, for, as he said,
his mouth was so hot that he was afraid to
draw his breath for fear he would fry his
lungs. We meandered around the plaza to
where the single word, "Euchiladas," was
displayed.
"That's the thing," said he, eagerly.
"If ever I wanted anything chilly it's
right now."
$ 3 .oo PER YEAR.
SINGLE COPIES, 10 CENTS.
We entered and gave our order, and in a
few minutes a smiling Mexican girl set
down before us a plate each of what looked
like two batter cakes, with boiled tomatoes
and grated cheese poured over them, and
surmounted by a beautifully poached egg.
I fell to it with a relish, and he, after a
suspicious look or two, cut off a huge bite
and proceeded to "chill" his mouth. Just
as he closed his eyes to enjoy the balmy
cooling he expected, the real nature of the
tinted sauce made itself known to him, and
with a whoop and a sputter he landed in
the center of the little room yelling for
w T ater. This was done quicker and with
more explosiveness and use of expletives
than was used by Pop Winslow on the his-
toric occasion at Buffalo, when he is said
to have absorbed about half a bottle of to-
basco sauce in lieu of catsup. The atten-
tive servant ran to him with a cup of
coffee, and you should have seen the tragic
gesture with which he repelled her ad-
vance.
•"Holy smoke!" he yelled. " I can blow
a hole through a two-inch plank now, and
you want to boil me! Water! Wasser!
Eau! What the devil do you call it, any-
how ?''
Thus appealed to, I said, "mescal," and
he repeated it: "Mescal, quick!" When
the obliging servant appeared again with
the clear, colorless fluid in a "pony," he
snatched it, saying: "You're mighty durn
saving of it," and tossed it off at a gulp.
Then he stood with both hands on his
stomach and looked at me with a stare that
seemed to say: "And is that Mexican
water?" Then he rushed out of the house
and straight to the fountain in the plaza
and buried his face in the brimming basin.
A few minutes afterward I came up to him
sitting on settees in the park, but he would
not look at me.
There are three principal drinks in Mex-
ico, and they are strictly national in their
character, though many Americans learn to
adopt them after a long stay. Mescal and
tequila are kindred spirits, and bear about
the same relation to pure whisky that a six-
foot buzz saw does to a grindstone, or a
streak of lightning to a parlor match. The
first impression produced by either of them
upon the novice who has just partaken is
that a torchlight procession has just
marched down his "swallow," and he can
almost hear the band play.
{Continued on page 7.)