IS BULLFIGHTING DOOMED?

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1782, 13 July 1926, Page 6

IS BULLFIGHTING DOOMED?

The decline of bull-fighting in Spain has begun (says Mr E. E. Pennington 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. To-day football i s ousting bull-fighting as the national sport. The change that has been wrought upon the S-panish idea of import since t'he incufision of football is truly wonderful. Bull-fighting 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 land 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 courtyards of . churches, yea, even in the hitherto sacrosanct bull-rings, football is now being played. British trainers coach the players of many of the leading teams, and at all the big matches thousands' upon thousands of enthusiasts throng the enclosure. The’re 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 bull-fighting fraternity is sore, for there are yet 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, Josilto, and Belmonte have become famous names. Moreover, nightly burlesques of bull-fights have become popular. Young bulls only are used in the spectacles, and the strenuous efforts of these to toss an unsuspecting Charles ’Chaplin or an inebriated gentleman in evening dress are undoubtedly most amusing; but to the faithful remnant that stilll worships at the shrine of tauromachy the sight is gall and wormwood.

Both press and public seiem 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 bull-ring of Murcia, “fjet us weep, and with our tears wash away the stain from the altar.” The writer rejoices that a dark chapter in the sporting records of Europe is about to be concluded.