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258 DAYS IN THE SUN
us bulls that kept their tails between their legs and
bullfighters that ran after them and stuck them from
behind. A blot on the honor of the nation.
But why have they given us no bullfights is the ques-
tion long asked, in the cafés, in the market-place.
Wherever two men have met the question has come
up, gently, with resignation. But even an Andalusian’s
patience has its limits. The question became more
bitter, became a murmur of public opinion that fore-
boded ill.
And their bitterness turned against the Prefect, the
Mayor and Director of Police in one person, the man
in charge of bullfights as well as of all other matters
of public weal. He is no longer the favorite of the
people; they no longer salute him in the streets but
turn away their heads. They will not even beg from
him. But the Prefect is stubborn—either that or pur-
suing some game of his own.
He is a poor ruler, they say. He is to blame for
the fact that the city is going down-hill; it is his fault
that the river Darro overflooded its subterranean bed
and inundated a whole section of the city; he is to
blame for the plant-louse and the plague of locusts.
And now he will not even give them a single miserable
bullfight! He hears words of abuse as he passes by;
stones fall at his feet by day; by night they pass
through his windows. But the Prefect is pig-headed,
or clever.
All misery, every unhappy event is traced to his
evil-doing and becomes doubled and tripled in magni-
tude in the minds of the offended population. They
gather themselves together, all the humbled and poor
in spirit, the injured and offended, hungry men join
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