Evening star., 1895-07-29
Bull Fighting ut the Atlanta Exposl


Bull Fighting ut the Atlanta EXPOSE
tiOn.
| To the Editor Of The Evening Star;
AS one who took an, humble part in a
crusade made In Paris to stay the spread
Of the Spanish bull fight brought into
France through the exposition of 1889. per-
nit me to recall at this very appropriate te
time-when the same baneful error is being
committed at Atlanta-some instructive
history.
This moral scourge. as it eventually
mitigated form. and under tine usual guise
| or disguise, of an ILLUSTRATION of foreign
customs" For this educational (?) purpose
torture was authorized. so long as the kill
ing-for the bull must always be killed
was not done before the audience. But
| very soon the public began to clamor for a
fuller Illustration, just as they will at
Atlanta. They wanted it done it was in
| Spain.
One day the queen regent of that country
attended, and. in her honor the bull was
slain in full view. 1 do not recall other at
tendant circumstances fully. They were at
least sufficiently brutal to cause suspen-
sion of further slaughter within the ring on
the one hand, and to excite a morbid public
| craving for 1.-The real thing" on the other.
Capital was forthcoming. and a vast am
phitheater was built without the jurlsdic-
ton of the exposition authorities. Noted
! matadors were imported at high salaries.
and, before year had passed, the arena
was popular fixture. packed with a
wealthy and fashionable audience who
cried, Bravo, Toro,% just as they do in
Spain. Excited women-not all Parisians-
even went so far as to have their lace
handkerchiefs dipped in the blood OF the
victim! These particulars. and many more
OF the same nature, are all recorded in the
Paris-New York Herald Of that period.
1t soon appeared to this wide-awake
newspaper that, If the managers of the
n n To nOth hot
the supineness of the authorities would
allow, something must DE done to mitigate
the effects of this object-lesson upon young
Americans. The gallant fight it made for
this end stands to the everlasting credit of
American journalism.
Its columns were thrown open to a full
discussion, and coupons issued for a poll
of the foreign vote, upon whose patronag ge
the hotels and stores so largely depended.
This vote was overwhelmingly against the
arena. the Indispensable Enlishmen de-
claring unanimously that. If there was any
further goring of mans best friend-the
horse-they would boycott the city.
There was, however, much violent Ian
guage used on the other side. one American
| woman going so far as to declare that the
sport could not be too exciting for her and
| that she looked forward to the time when
"purtanical cant" would be wiped out, and
bull fighting be as free in New York as II
| was in Madrid!
The advocates Of humanity finally tri-
umphed so far as restrict the more
brutal features of the sport; but the bull
| fight has not yet been driven from France
nor will 1t be perhaps in this generation
Is there not some lesson for us in this!
Has not our governmental humanely dis
posed-some statute 1t may apply? Would
it have to strain interpretations in the least
to class this curse as "immoral?" Will we
be even as powerful as France to suppress
| it, when once, like the prize fight, 1t has
! made for itself a popular backing? Is il
we'll to bubble to the meaning of ''im-
moral when unscrupulous spectators
, under cover Of more glaring bubble as to
what constitutes an illustration of Gus.
TOMS" proposed to set up, at a public ex-
position, school in which the young may
be Injured TO the sight Of blood and suffer.
ing? Are the annual butcheries with which
the King of Dohomey amuses his foreign
guest any less national custom" than
the Mexican bull fight? Shall the exposi-
tions. while conducting to material growth
on the one hand, be permitted to hasten
moral decline on the other? 1t requires nc
gift OF prophecy to foresee that all these
questions must be answered and with in
/ finite trouble before we have done with this
BUN pen at Atlanta, and it appears to the
writer that all good people should unite to
insist upon an answer now
RICHARD N. BROOKE.