The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1900-05-11
Es
Dan on PARIS BULLFICHTS.



Yisitors to Paris during the expo
sition will not be able to witness
1balltight this year Of grace. It Is
probable that If the question had
been settled by popular vote the
.bnilfight would have won the day.
tive greeted with great enthusiasm
the past year in the south of France,
then toward the center, then at Eng
helm. within hailings distance of the
capital, and finally actually inside the
very Notifications, Step by. step it
was, however. bitterly fought by a
lev vigorous opponents, who at last
got the government interested in
checking the invader on the plea that
bnllfights always created the widest
disorder in French towns and were
easily made the excuse for turbulent
gatherings. d all kinds. At, Enghein
last September the mayor, his brother
officials and few score residents
Joined against tho rest of the town
IN fighting the Innovation, posted
placards calling on ''all good and
peaceablc citizens to stay indoors on
the Sunday when the first bullfight
was advertised to take place and
called down from Paris an extra force
OF policemen. A law had hastily been
got through the municipal council
forbidding all spectacles. of the kind
which were anything but mere tex
hibitions" Of the toreador's skill. This
was SO vague as to mean nothing,
and the advocates of the sport tram.
pied down all obstacles. The crowd
gathered, 1000 strong, in the arena;
the matadors appeared on the scene,
and. the torture had gone on for
some half hour when the bull finally
took. things into his own control.
jumped the railing, stampeded the
public, threw the concourse into
screaming confusion and went madly
careering through the town. He evi:
IDENTIFY agreed with the minority. He
was dispatched with bullet. and
since this little incident no bullfght
has been given within the borders of
France.
Sig. Mazzantini, an Italian, made the
next effort to introduce the national
sport of Spain into France He. want.
ed to get up a splendid 'corrida" for
the exposition, and had got his prep
arations fully under way when the
government sent out fat to the ef-
feet that under no circumstances
would bullfights be allowed, even in
connection with the exposition. IF
Spain could not send something bet
ter than that to Paris she might keep
away altogether seemed the implica.
tion, for no less a person than the
premier himself took the matter in
hand and laid it before the cabinet.
He is said to have declared that a
brutal sport was trying to fasten it.
self on France and that the occasion
called for an emphatic action on the
governments part before it was too
late. This shows how seriously the
affair was regarded. Mazzantini grew
furious. 1T u.s." he said. the other
morning, ''the object of an exposition
to show different national habits and
customs. This is part of it's educa-
tional mission. Now, bullfghts are
the Spanish passion. Spanish children
draw in love for them with mothers
milk, and yet we are not to be al
lowed to give the world representa-
ton of them. I, too, am against some
of the features of the sport-the rip
ping open of horses, for example-but
all these gross possibilities of the cor
rida would have been guarded against.
The action of the premier is not only
an insult to Spain, but a display of
narrowness on the part of the French
government"
Mazzantini used to be the station
MASTER at the main depot in Madrid,
but on an impulse he threw up his mo-
notonous duties for the adventure
some life of the arena, and has actu-
ally of late gone into the fight him
self as a toreador. He is of superb
stature and looks like the ideal mata-
dor of comic opera.
He grows so extremely excited when
in bullfght that he contemplates
having to give up the sport on &C.
count of it's injury to his nerves. His
last essay in public was to be in a
blaze of glory in the exposition side
show known as "Andalusia in the
Time of the Moors." The greatest cor
rida of modern times was to have
taken place there, ':and," remarked
he, sadly, lust think how many thou
sands of Americans and English would
have come! 1t would have been their
chence-and mine-of a lifetime"
Regrets, however, are vain. The bill
prohibiting the sport has already been
ratified by the chamber.
SUBMARINE BOATS.