Such 4 man was Jose Martinez. The writer was in close—personai contact with him some several months ago, saw him despatch 80 bulls over a period of ten weeks and had ample opportunity to note his mental reaction to the business. in which he made his fame.
Martinez was halt Mexican of] mixed Spanish and Yaqui Indian blood, and half pure Oaxaca Indian] strain, practically the same root from which came the great Porfiro Diaz, 'A-small man in stature, perhaps five feet four inches in height, with the brown-black eyes of the real Mexican Indian, straight black hair, _and possessing the courtesy of a fictional hero of the old bull-fighting school.
Always exquisitely groomed as) night rich all baron, Marti adulation that was showered on} him with a small grain of salt and was one figure in the public eye who could see through the fickle public which, perhaps, accounted for his T met him first in Guatemala where be was facing six bulls each Sunday in the Plaza de Toros with 'a3 much unconcern as though he one-legged Greek They were not native animals, but "of Spanish import, born and bred to end their days in the corridors and from breeding sments_ known wherever! Spanish blood flows And T saw him in the episode which ho later said was his closest escape from destruction, a brief flashing instant in which all his bull-fighting canniness was necessary for his survival, An Outlaw from the Code Tt happened in the new stone and cement bull ring in Mexico Cit that is said to be capable of holding 100,000 persons. A large black anc white bull was facing him. A magnificent animal, now stamping the dirt over his heaving flanks and now looking warily about as the attendants fluttered capes. here and there to test out his eyesight.
It is an axiom of the ring that, most bulls when charging turn the head to the right at the beginning of the toss. This must be found out ahead of time for the matador tu take into consideration at the kill There are, however, bulls who swing to the left, but more feared than any are those outlaws from the prescribed code who bring their horns up in any way they see fit, right or left as they desire. And such a bull] was the one in mind.
Consequently the matador's task }was doubly dangerous.
As this bull entered the ring he was immediately sounded out. An
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