or is this outlandish camouflage story so much bull?

Wild West bull fight poster

Despite our enormous dislike of killing animals for sport (so-called game hunting included), we have decided to post a story about camouflage and bull fighting. It is the text of a news article from The Boston Globe (March 24, 1921, p. 13), with the headline BULL HAD ‘EM GUESSING UNTIL HE SAW HIMSELF: How Camouflage Artists Injected Yankee Pep Into Mexico’s National Sport. It reads like this—

NEW YORK—Here’s the story of a bull fight in Mexico City that you can take or leave, according to Miss Hilda Moreno, an 18-year Spanish dancer [actually Cuban-born] who arrived here today from Vera Cruz on the steamship Antonio Lopez. She vouched for the bull story, saying she sat next to three participants in it. Officers of the liner also heard about it at the Mexican seaport. 

The trio she referred to were formerly American sailors, who served in the navy during the war [WWI].

Juan Martinez, famed bull artist, had engaged to slay five bulls for the entertainment of the populace. Miss Moreno had never seen a bull fight; neither had the sailors.

Three bulls were killed with great ease, when the American voiced their disapproval, declaring the animals had no chance. The manager of the show heard their remarks and inquired sarcastically if they could propose anything to add to the excitement. They put their heads together and asked permission to handle a bull. The fifth one was assigned to them, while the fourth went to its death.

In the Navy the sailors had been detailed to the camouflage division and had become proficent in that art. They got paint and went to work on the bull. They painted a face and horns on the wrong end, so that it was difficult to tell which way the animal was heading. When it entered the arena on the run, matadors and toreador were up against it. The bull was all over the place, so far as they could see. The audience howled its approval.

But the bull had a bush of hair as the end of its tail which the sailors had painted red. On one of the turns the animal spied the red and went after it. The result was it spun around until it dropped, to the relief of its antagonists.

Miss Moreno is not going to appear here and has no press agent. She is going to Spain to fill a contract at the Queen’s Theatre in Madrid.