IS BULL-FIGHTING DOOMED?

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 254, 10 July 1926, Page 22

IS BULL-FIGHTING DOOMED?

The decline of bull-fighting in Spain has begun (says Mr. E. F. I’cnnjngton in the May number of the “Empire Review”). A pastime that was • once solely British, but is now world-wide, is taking the peninsular by storm. Today football is outing bull-fighting as the national sport. The change that has been wrought upon the Spanish idea of sport since the incursion of football is truly wonderful. Bull-fight-ing had become with the Spaniards more than a sport, almost a solemn rite. Church and State had attempted to stop it in vain. This memory of the Roman Empire persisted in spite of them. Now it yields to “Soccer.” “In every town amt village throughout Spain,” proceeds Mr. Pennington, “whether it be within legitimate enclosures, on scraps of waste ground, on the streets, in the grounds of monasteries, on the courtyards of churches, yea, even in the hitherto sacrosanct bullrings, football is now being played. British trainers coach the players of tnanv of the leading teams, and at all the big matches thousands upon thousands of the enthusiasts throng the enclosures. There is no doubt whatever that the advent of football has been hailed with joy by the mass of the sporting community- And the heart of the bullfighting fraternity is sore, for there are vet other unmistakable portents of the decline, of tauromachy.” These consist in blows at the dignity of the sport. Women have succeeded in emulating the feats of the national heroes. Bombita, Joselito, and Belmonte have become famous names. Moreover, nightly burlesques of bull-fights have become popular. “Young bulls only arc used in the spectacle, and the strenuous efforts of these to toss an unsuspecting Charlie Chaplin or 'an inebriated gent’ in evening dress are undoubtedly most amusing;' but to the faithful remnant that still worship at the shrine of tauromachv the sight is gall and wormwood.

... Both Press and public seem inclined to treat the passing of the fiesta as a joke.” “The Temple of Taurus has been profaned,” wrote one scribe about a football match recently played in the bullring at Murcia. “Let us weep, and with our- tears wash away the stain from the altar.” Ihe writer rejoices that “a dark chapter in the sporting records of Europe is about to be concluded!”