flaunted near him he immediately attacks it
instead and is thus decoyed to another part of the ring. Thus, too, the
apparent danger to the swordsman who delivers the _coup de grace_ is not
really very great if he show the necessary agility and watchfulness.
When a bull charges he charges not his real enemy, but that exasperating
red cloth; and the man has only to step a little to the side, but _still
hold the cloth in front_ of the bull, to escape all danger. Without this
protecting cloth no matador would dare to enter the ring. The
banderilleros, too, thus escape danger because they do their work while
the bull's whole attention is on the red cloth operated by another man
in front. The man I saw gored, tossed and killed must have made some
little miscalculation, or been careless, and stood not quite out of the
bull's way, so that the terrible sharp horns caught him, as one may say,
_by mistake_.

The Mexicans, too, like my coolies in India, were great cock-fighters.
It is a national sport and also a cruel one.

Matadors are paid princely sums. The most efficient, the great stars,
come from Spain. Many of them are extremely handsome men and their
costume a handsome and picturesque one. As a mark of their profession
they wear a small pigtail, not artificial but of their own growing hair.
I travelled with one once but did not know it till he removed his hat.

Denver and San Francisco were great centres of prize-fighting. In both
places I saw many of the great ring men of the day, in fact never missed
an opportunity of attending such meetings. It was mostly, however,
"goes" between the "coming" men, such as Jim Corbett and other
aspirants. A real champion fight between heavyweights I was never lucky
enough to witness.

Base-ball games always appealed to me, and to witness a first-class
match only a very great distance would prevent my attendance. To
appreciate the game one must thoroughly understand its thousand fine
points. It absorbs the onlooker's interest as no other game can do.
Every player must be constantly on the alert and must act on his own
judgment. The winning or losing of the match may at any moment lie with
him. The game only lasts some two hours; but for the onlookers every
moment of these two hours is pregnant with interest and probably intense
excitement. Here is no sleeping and dozing on the stands for hours at a
time as witnessed at popular cricket matches. Time is too valuable in
America for that,