With the Battle Fleet: Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907-May, 1908Matthews, Franklin
History
With the Battle Fleet: Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907-May, 1908
Matthews, Franklin
United States. Navy. Atlantic Fleet -- Cruise, 1907-1909
Padillo killed the fourth bull and made his usual number of failures.
The fifth bull, Banjo, aroused the sympathy of the crowd. He fought
magnificently. He would not be tired out. It came time to kill him.
Padillo went after him with his cape and the bull deftly caught him,
lifted him in the air, and he fell beside Banjo and rolled under the
animal. Down went the horns to gore him. The cape men fluttered all
around. Padillo curled himself up in a ball. The bull stepped this way
and that and then charged off after a cape man, leaving Padillo unharmed
but his nerve gone. He went after the bull again. He was deathly pale
about the mouth. One of his legs trembled violently. Deathlike stillness
was over the ring.
Soon the bull began to tear his cape from his hands, a disgrace. Once,
twice, three times the bull did this. The Peruvians were enraged. They
cried "Shame!" Padillo's father, who was in the ring, tried to explain
that it was a bad bull and invited the critics to come and try it
themselves. Almost beside himself, Padillo made three rushes at the bull
without taking proper aim, in the hope of catching the animal unawares
and giving him a death thrust. The fourth time he gave the thrust.
The bull saw him coming, did not lower his head, and just as Padillo
placed his sword in the neck the bull raised his head, caught Padillo on
his horns, one of them penetrating under the chin and entering the mouth
cavity. A cry of horror went up. Padillo fell but got up quickly, and
with a look of mighty disgust saw the bull reel away. Then, catching
himself by the throat and staggering forward Padillo ran to the
enclosure from which the bull had entered, a distance of about twenty
feet, the blood streaming from his wound. He dropped just inside the
enclosure and word was passed around that bull and man had each given
the other the death thrust. Tragedy could not have been more complete
had it been true, but Padillo went to a hospital and didn't die. There
were thousands of Americans who said they really did feel a little sorry
for the bull. Bill Watkins explained the poor gunn'ry of Padillo.
"Up in the air! Up in the air! Come down out of the balloon! Say, he's
like a landsman at a 13-inch gun with a misfire--don't know what to do
with it himself and can't give it away. Take him out of the hood! Give
him an air gun! Let him blow soap bubbles! Don't fire until the gun's
loaded, sonny! There, the operating lever caught him in the mush! Yer
better keep out of the line of fire next time!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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