The Washington herald., 1920-06-20
REBELS
ON BULL FIGHT
Author Says Sport War
rants Foreign Invasion
: To Stop 1t.
CITES DEATH OF GOMEZ
Would Substitute Football
And Other Modern
Games for Combat.
tw..Ai.ste, HeraId-Cro.. Atlantic

(washfnston HeraId-Cross Atlsntfe
Service. Special Cable Dispsteh.D
Madrid, June 1s.-The horrible
death in the bull ring of the noted
matador. Joselito Gomez. has stirred
profound reactions throughout the
nation against Spain's time-honored
sport.
Luis Anton del Olmet. noted
Spanish author, has launched him.
self into the forefront of the move
ment.
Oners Substitutes.
Recognizing the advantages Of
public sport and the encourage
ment of yalor and skill. Olmet calls
for substitution for the bull ring
of such foreign sports as football
and Grecian games. His severe de-
nunciation of bull hghting has
stirred the country.
Bull fights brutalize and de-
civilize. They give a nimbus to the
bully. Bull fights and women's
blood. The stab of the seamstress
by the hooligan for jealousy, for
attractive manhood-such crimes
were born in the circus with its de-
bauchery of blood and cruelty.
Bull fights impoverish the desti-
tute. corrupt the vicious, and em-
bolden the grotesque braggart.
Champions Horses.
For these there exist pasture
lands that night grow wheat, and
huge buildings that might be work
shops. Round the bull ring there
grows a fetid psrasitism. Sexual
alteration is accentuated by this
decadent frenzy
The treatment of the horses is
so Infamous that ! would be glad
Of a foreign invasion to stop il. The
people that deals by its old horses,
those friends of man, in such a dis
gustingly cowardly fashion, does
not deserve to be free.
when sitting in the circus hear
ing the rasping tear of the skin,
the cudgelling of the buttocks, then
seeing them appear in the sunshine
dripping with blood. whilst the old
horse looks at once so innocent and
so stupehed-I have sometimes
longed to wrench out of myself my
Spanish nationality and TO travel. to
follow those Spaniards of Amerilla,
who have prescribed this Chinese
torture. this Moorish alteration,
this Hebraic cruelty, this infamous
mockery.
Spnniard Is branded.
THE fame of bull fights has
passed beyond the Spanish frontier,
and every Spaniard abroad savors
of the toreador. 1 have been asked
in London and Paris what
thought Of bull fighting-and have
had to confess.
Il think il is rrmediable, as is all
e!se in life. Let US begin by abol-
ishing the horses. Next, would il
not be possible to bring the bull
ring up to the race course-to in
troduce fights. running. fencing?
Football is healthful and manly,
and has become popular. Could not
other classical or modern deXteri-
ties, or modern inventions take
root?
Suppose we lad. instead OF tor
eadors. boxers; instead of blood,
art. and instead of bullies, cham
pions? There would still he con-
served what is national and live and
healthy. and there would be an end
to the barbarity of the bull fight.
Matadors Grow Rich.
But there are other reforms far
more pressing. And this one seems
impossible. II follows. therefore. I
suppose, that we will have TO recon-
cile ourselves to bull fights as We
do to political caucuses."
Gomez, who met his fate in a pub
lie contest witnessed by the Queen
of Spain at Seville recently. and
who was of gypsy birth, had earned
enormous sums by his prowess. His
popularity was so great that his
supporters grouped themselves into
a party which upheld his fame
against that of his rival, Belmonte,
known as "Bombita" (the Firework)
who is left by Gomez death the pre-
mier bull fighter of Spain.
The earnings OF a successful ma
tador reach as high as sl25.00o
year.
Copyright. 1870. Cross-Atlautic Newspaper
Service. lnc.I