Arizona republican., 1900-12-07
CHURCHES UP IN ARMS
Great Indignation Over the Proposed
 Bull Fight.

"A shame!"
 | "Deplorablel'
 Most barbarous!"
 "A disgrace to Arizona and to the United States!'
 "A disgrace to the promoters of the affair."
 An insult thrown fin the face of civilized commungty!"
 Such were a few laconic and ve- hement expressions by members of the city ministers association and of the various churches, Thursday evening, and they may be said to voice the opinions of all of the better portion of Phoenix upon the bull fight scheduled for Monday afternoon, as a side issue to the carnival
 Ministers and church societies are up in arms, indignant over what they term a revival of the babarous GUS toms of the middle ages Yesterday afternoon a number of the pastors of the churches held an inf f2rnal meeting and resolved to make a desperate effort to prevent the fight. A special meet ing of the ministerial association will be held today; an appeal sent to ter ritorial officials, praying that, for hu- manity's sake, the fight be prohibited and denouncing the attempt to give it. The Rev. c. V. Cowan, pastor of the First Methodist church, pr. l.. A. McAfea of the Presbyterian church and Dr. Lewis Ha,sey of the Baptist church. are particularly active in the effort to prevent the bull fight. Tt will be a fearful thing If the affair is permitted" said Dr. McAfee. Not only will the effect upon the public be exceedingly Gemoralizing, but it will give the territory a setback in is attempt to secure statehood
 ''The authorities should by no means permit the fight" said Dr. Hal sey and it is my opinion that the af- fair, if it is permitted, will do Ari- zona more harm than any one thing that could occur. It behooves all good citizens to lend their aid in stopping the fight"
 T was astounded," said Dr. Cowan. when I heard of the proposed fight. In years past Arizona has been noted in the east for the lawlessness here it is shame that just at this time, when the territory has about lived down the old reputation, this thing should come, and for the sake of the personal gains of it's promoters, again give Arizona a black eye. I talked to MT. Hugh Creighton today, and he assured me that there would be no bloodshed, in fact, that the fight was to be a fake. He said the bulls and the other accessories would be there, but the fight would be a modified form of the genuine bull fight. He said that he expected to clear $1O.0OO on the af- fair. The ministerial association, will be able, I hope, tomorrow, to take steps to prevent the fight"
 The ministers yesterday afternoon held a consultation with several at torneys. Judge Stillwell looked into the matter and found that while there was no territorial law against bull fighting, the promoters could be made amenable to the statute which makes cruelty to animals a misde- meanor. Several of the ministers in timated last night that they would see that warrants were issued for the men who are pushing the. enterprise
 At the meeting of the Epworth League at the Methodist church last evening, the following resolutions were adopted:
 Whereas, we take note that a local syndicate has arranged for a bull fight" to take place in Phoenix on next Monday, and whereas we rec ognize such ar institution as a relic of barbarfsm and cruelty; and whereas we believe this 10 be blight and a stigma upon our city and territory.
 Therefore, be it resolved that we. the members of the Epworth League of the First M. E. church, in annual meeting assembled do hereby express our surprise and indignation that there are citizens in Phoenix that are so lit tie interested in the moral welfare of our city as to import this relic of bar barism, which is not tolerated in any civilized country.
 And we do hereby earnestly entreat every good citizen to lift his voice against this terrible innovation. And We also most heartily commend the action of the carnival committee in re- fusing to endorse the bull fight as one of the attractions of the carnivaI."1