New Bullfight Rules

Bullfight fans hold that the contest between man and bull is not sport but drama. Gringos, who often find themselves cheering the bull, insist that whatever it is, it is loaded in favor of the bullfighter. Last week, as the new season opened in Mexico City, the gringos had reason to believe they might have been right. President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines had decided that the drama needed some editing; he decreed 98 changes in the bullfighting code, designed to give the bulls a better break and to take some of the histrionics out of the bullfighters.

To prevent the picadors, who lance bulls from horseback, from tooling their lances so that they weaken the bulls too early in the fight, the new decree requires that the steel points be impounded for 48 hours before the corrida. It also requires the bullfighter to face the bull with only one cape-waving helper, instead of the many formerly used to confuse the animal. Bulls now must be bigger, and to save them needless, heavy-handed torture, bullfighters must limit their passes to twelve minutes and kill within six minutes. If they fail, the bulls will be released from the arena.

The decree even took note that the spectators have been subjected to all too many emotional "farewell" appearances by bullfighters who popped up later in surprising comebacks. Now bullfighters coming out of brief retirement must turn over to charity the entire proceeds from the first comeback performance.

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