The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-08-23 00:00:00

HORSE RACES V. BULL FIGHTS IN

SPAIN.

Under the ab we heading The Times of Monday gave a
long article from their Special Correspondent, contrasting
horse-racing with the Spanish national sport of bull-fightin
We make the following extracts therefrom :

The horse-racing season this year has been very suc-
cessful throughout Spain. I heard a great deal about
it in the south, where Englishmen, or men of English
extraction, grown rich in various branches of business,
own, breed, and train either thoroughbreds imported
from their mother country or colts obtained by a
cross between their own island mares and whatever
remains of old Spanish and Arab stock. In Spain, as
In France, in Italy, and elsewhere, the sport is entirely
exotic; the owners, trainers, and riders are mostly
strangers to the country. The Spanish people, however,
among whom cock-fighting is still in high honour, take
to horse-racing with amazing eagerness and zest. In
the South I only attended the course at Seville, and
there the enjoyment was somewhat marred by the fall
of a little rain and the threat of an actual deluge. Bat
at Malaga, at Cadiz, at Xerxes, and at Cordova great
crowds assembled, and the railways supplied excursion
tickets to an unprecedented multitude of passengers,
attracted by the popularity of those hippie amuse•
ments which in the Andalusian cities have ceased to be
a novelty. At Madrid the racing took place at the
new Hippodrome, which is being laid out at the end
of the drive of Fuente Castellana, ha sight of the
snow-capped Sierra de Guadarrama, and, as an extra
treat, the ilite of the Madrid Society, both Spanish and
foreign, about 500 persons, were invited to a private
race meeting by the Duque de Fernan-Nunez, a noble-
man of Italian extraction and born at Milan, but
allied by marriage with some of the most conspicuous
families of Spanish Grandees, who did the honours
of his house and of the racecourse at his country
seat of La Palenca (an estate bordering on
the Royal Park and Palace of .Aranjuez, two hours by
rail from Madrid) with a grace and courtesy worthy
the best days of chivalrous Spain. I should hardly
have deemed it worth while to be present at horse
races, either at Madrid or La Palenca, as I am not by
any means a " horsey " man, have a horror of all
betting and gambling, and look upon all sport as some-
thing extraneous to the subject which brought me to
the Peninsula. But my interest was suddenly awakened
by a few words which fell almost inadvertently from
the lips of an amiable, liberal, and accomplished gen-
tleman from Xeres, who takes a prominent part in the
doings of all these Spanish hippodromes, and who told
me that his object and that of many of his associates
was so to promote the taste of the Spanish people of
all classes for the pleasures of the raceconrse as in time
to wean them from their native performances in the
bullring
Can a reform in the sports of a whole people be
effected by the introduction of other people's amuse-
ments? Can the jockey take the place of the matador?
I have lately seen a mass of more than 50,000 people,
one-fourth of the inhabitants of Madrid, crowding the
race-coarse at the Fuente Castellana—a multitude, if
we take into account the statistics of population, pro-
portionally exceeding the crowds assembling even for
the Derby on Epsom-downs. I have seen more patience
exhibited in the intervals and witnessed more frenzy
at the " heats " than I ever observed at any English
or even Irish cup-day. I have heard the names of
the favourites on the cards of Mr. Davies's Tro-
vador and Ole Ole, of the Duke Fernan-Nniez's
Pagnotte, Rigolade, or Petit Verre, of Senor
Aladro's Eclipse, Segundo, and others, called out
with such a thunder of loud voices as I scarcely
thought could ever proceed from human lungs;
and I asked myself whether an institution which here
might be said to be still in its infancy could not, and
would not, if properly encouraged, soon attain such
development and rice to such popularity as to engross
all the faculties and monopolise all the spare time and
spare cull of Spanish pleasure-seekers. Horse-racing
is in itself a far nobler sport, more rational, more
human, and at least not less exciting than the bull.
fight; and it may be equally recommended on the
score of the peculiar charm attached to all out.of-door
entertainment—that of affording an opportunity for
the enjoyment of free wholesome air, for the exchange
of friendly greetings with genial acquaintances, and
for the women's display of their bright attire and the
gratification of their desire to see and be seen. . . .
Independently of the sociaLand moral improvement
which might be wrought among the Spaniards by the
gradual discontinuance and the final abolition of their
national game, any measure tending that result would
also be recommendable on economical grounds. The
bull-fight is a very expensive pastime. Persons conver-
sant with the subject tell us that in an average of 400
to 500 corridas during the year throughout the king-
dom, about 2,400 bulls and 3,600 horses are killed.
The latter are absolutely of no value, but the bulls
are a serious loss to the cattle breeders, as they must
be allowed to run wild in uncultivated districts all
their lifetime, instead of being fitted for use at the
plough or put to the country cart; and they cannot
be utilized after death, as their meat, spoiled by that
brief hour of fury and agony, is an abomination to the
butcher, and has to be sold at the lowest price among the
poorest populace outside the ring. The sum these
animals represent is reckoned at £74,000 yearly, and
with the tickets sold at the door the bull-fight is sup-
posed to cause to the Spanish nation an annual
outlay of at least £220,000. Horse racing may be
in many respects a more costly institution; but
to say nothing of the fact that, instead of leading
to the wanton waste of useful cattle, it powerfully
contributes to the improvement of the breed of
horses, it has also this inestimable advantage—
that the extravagance falls, or may be made to
fall, on the classes which may best afford its
indulgence, and that the poor people can enjoy
the sport without paying for admittance and abso-
lutely free of expense. lam thoroughly convinced
that, were fair play and an open competition
allowed by the authorities, were a treat at the
race-course advertised as taking place on the same
afternoon and at precisely the same hour that a
funcion is announced as ci ming off at the bull-ring,
an immediate division would take place in the crowd
pouring out of Madrid in quest of pleasure; and that,
If not, perhaps, immediately, certainly at least at no
distance of time, the stream setting out of the Alcala
gate to patronize the bullfight would be greatly outnum-
bered by the tide flowing along the drive of Fuente Cas-
tellana on their way to the hippodrome. For although,
In spite of crushing taxes, scanty crops, famine prices,
and the prevalence of übiquitous and infinite beggary,
the Spaniard seems always able to procure gold and
silver enough for the gratification of his craving for
enjoyment, he is not so unthrifty as to hesitate be-
tween amusement for which he must put his hand to
his pocket and one which enables him to kill time
without being mulcted for it at the ticket-office.
Horse-races may be offered to him on the same terms
as a gift horse, in whose mouth we are taught that it
is wisdom not to look too particularly."