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Show I JJwfoeel in Ireland, j By John B. Black. j; I (Copyright, 1. 03. by John A. Black.) 1 NUMBER III. 'i The old woman at the entrance to ! rhe ca. tie. who I suppose is treasurer ! of the business, for she receives the offerings of the pilgrims, is worthy of some attention, for she is a thirty-sec- I ond degree blarney. When I asked her J if I might go into the adjoining I neadow to take a picture of the castle the whispered confidentially that she j would "strain a point" for me, and let J me in, which, she hoped, of course, v.ould induce me to strain a point or two when I made my thank offering for favors granted. Two streams have gushed out from this stone of Blarney since it was first smitten by the lip of Cormac McCarthy: one of eloquenc into the world; the other of shillings into the castle treasury. The McCarthys McCar-thys struck pay rock when they hit upon the Blarney Stone story. Boring ourselves up through more than a hundred feet of stone tower. ?iv spiral stone stairs, left us little !t breath for exclamations of delight at the magnificent view which we beheld when we came our on top of the cast1., i "The groves of Blarney t They look so charming, j Down by the purlings I Of sweet, silent streams." I But it would be very improper for I us to stand here in the presence of the i lord of the castle, admiring and prais- ing its grounds, so we proceed to pros- Irate ourselves before the royal rock Itself, which, contrary to the custom r o most courts, is done by lying Mat on your back instead of on your face. Al- most everyone tries to give the Jm- presslon that he regards kissing the I Blarney Stone as a joke: but I have I seen several at it, and they certainly rmacked it with all the unction of a I veal faith. To pay out the better part I o a guinea in fares and tips, and I limb a hundred feet of stairs, and I liang yourself, head down, a hundred I frt above ground to kiss a microbe- i hidon sione is carrying a joke too far, nnd is presumptive evidence that the one who docs it does believe that "There is a stone there That, whoever kisses, )h! he never misses, To grow eloquent." I have had the royal honor of assisting assist-ing at the ceremony several time by holding to to the legs of some who ! r-ame to scoff and remained to kiss: j and I was so far carried past my usual icserve by the excitement of the occasion oc-casion that I actually offered my services serv-ices to a young lady who looked longingly long-ingly at the stone: but her delicate '! rriod?sty overruled her evident desire, and my well-meant ministrations were jj declined. On leaving the castle we paid !' .ur respects, and something besides, to j ' the old woman, who gave us a hearty "God bless you. sir. and give you a ;' pafe journey:" " which we took as evi- dence that we had come up to her ex- ' pectations at last. A blessing from r.ne so practiced in bestowing them Is not to be regarded lightly. i We were sorry to leave Cork, for we felt quite at home among those good- j natured. obliging people, who have j wide for themselves so charming a city. But we had been looking over i i the man, and there were some hun dreds of villages and places with an irresistible ir-resistible attraction for us; so we set i ourfaces countryward and rode away I from Cork toward Macroom. This took I us up the Lee valley, through a fine farming country, which is cultivated to the very hilltop. Near Ballincollig Ave crossed the Lee on the long, narrow, many-arched Inniscarra bridge, one of those picturesque old bridges with charming names which delight the traveler in Ireland. From here we bar southward a little through Ovens, rat Crookstown, then northward lo Macroom. We turned off the main road a little v way to visit Kilcrea Abbey, which j stands on the banks of the River Bride I ; near an ancient bridge.. The abbey if ' ;n interesting old ruin, standing in a !: . field back of a farmhouse, at the end of a double row of great trees.' Its walls and windows, gable? and lower, I are all draped in dark gTeen bv rev- , rrent Nature, which does Its best to follow after old Father Time, and cast ; Hie mantle of ivy over his misdeeds. These old abbeys are favorite burying places. Kilcrea is crowded with tombs, ihe most notable of which is that of HerlJhy, bishop of Ross, one of th three Irish members of the Council of Trent. Near by Is Kilcrea castle,- from whose tower the McCarthys could almost al-most salute the McSwineys of Castle-more, Castle-more, and Clodagh castle, which we passed a little further on. The McSwineys came down to these parts from Donegal, and,- of course, must show the McCarthys that they i were not poor Irish, so - Castlemore, which they built;' islarge and strong, second only to Blarney. These Macs had a habit of prying into each other's affairs and into each other's castles, too which made .an eight-foot wail with openings to poke guns through a necessity. This : was before neighbors loved each other as themselves; and to do the other fellow as he would do you, "and do it 'fust," was not considered consid-ered unneighborly.- As L stood in these great castle towers I. could imagine I heard the voice of some' Mrs. Mac winding down the spiral stone stairs, from the top floor, calling: "Cormac, don't forget to pull down the portcullis and raise up the drawbridge, before you come to bed, for those Barretts are up to something, I'm sure-, they are so friendly lately." "Clodagh." said the old man mending mend-ing the road, "manes David's stone which you will see standing in the field beyant the turn of the road." "Sure, he was a great intirely in these parts, long ago;" and this stone is said to morlr hie cravp nrr PafhpT urA son for untold generations have mowed and ploughed around this stone, which is as sacred as if an angel guarded It, for these people have a fine reverence and care for these antiquities which enrich their land. "It's not seven miles to Macroom, but it's tight on it," said the old man by the wayside; and before we arrived there, In our dinnerless state, it seemed tight on to ten miles: for we were not used to taking into account the "bit" which makes an Irish mile about an Knglish mile and a quarter. Most of the natives travel in Irish yet. "If the roads are not very good," S3id the car driver, "we make up for it by throwin' in a bit with every mile." We fell in with a dispensary doctor, who. with real Irish good nature, rode several miles out of his way with us to escort us through his territory. H has had his finger on the pulse of these people for over twenty years, and their hearts beat true, so he says; and if they are like him. so say we, for he was a real Irish gentleman. We saw a good deal of the ragged edges of Macroom. both going In and coming out. The skirts of most of these old towns are in tatters. But the body of Macroom is in good condition and has a thriving air about it. The main street runs against the sharp end of a wedge-shaped block of buildings In the market place, and splits in two, one half running down the hill past tho castle and across the old bridge toward Ballyvourney: the other winds up a steep hill, Inehigeela way. The castle I vi. win.- liic ujiMiiituun vi ut-iiis urc birthplace of the grandfather of PennsylvaniaAdmiral Penn-sylvaniaAdmiral Penn. father of William. Wil-liam. It is now ruled by Lord Ardi-laun, Ardi-laun, who is better known as Guinness Guin-ness the brewer, who, with his Stout fortune, besieged and took the castle, ffter paying off its defenders, which is an improvement on the old way of hanging them up. It was market day in Macroom. and many country people were in town. Most of -the older women wore long black cloaks vih areat hood, and as they moved about ' the market place they gave a mournful appearance to the scene. This great cover-all cloak worn by the women in parts of the south, although not a very beautiful dress., is very serviceable, for it makes up for all . shortcomings in wardrobe and can be made to cover a multitude of embarrassing defects in dress. . Today's lunch is the first real "ould country" meal we have had; and my companion. Esculapius. who is only two days "out" of America, and is a -bit suspicious, sits staring in ,the poorly i lighted dining room at something sitting sit-ting on the corner of the table, till I take it by the nape of the neck and lift it up. disclosing a steaming teapot, for Esculapius had taken the "cosy" for a cat. And he who with scalpel cani divide asunder even muscles and nerves, could not, for the life of him, saw off a respectable looking slice, from the great loaf of bread on the wooden tray: and' T 'am siirP that the pcst-prandial examination charged him with brutal mutilation, and betrayed that he belonged to a people whose bread is cut for them, even to the bisecting bi-secting of slices and half slices. I assured as-sured Esculapius that it was all-abounding all-abounding generosity of the Irish that prompted them to intrust us with the whole loaf and the teapot. It shows that mine host has confidence in us or in his wife's bread and tea. Escula-1 Escula-1 plus soon got used to these things, and even the bill to be "paid with thanks" failed to startle him. Five miles from Macroom, on the Coachford road, is the interesting old castle of Carrigadrohld. which 1 visited. vis-ited. It stands on a little Island in the Lee and Is entered from the bridge which spans the river at the castle. Its history begins in romance and ends in tragedy. It was built, so the story goes, by Diarmid McCarthy to please his beautiful bride, Una O'Carroll, who fancied the spot for a home. It was taken from the Irish by Broghill, one of Cromwell's handy men.' Broghill found it no easy task, so the bishop of Ross, who had been taken a prisoner at Macroom, was asked to persuade the Irish to surrender Carrigadrohid, for which he was to be paid with a pardon. He was conducted to the walls of the castle: but Broghill had misjudged this Irishman when he reckoned that he loved life above honor, or prized liberty lib-erty more than a good conscience; for the brave bishop adjured the garrison to hold out so long as life and walls lasted, and then turned to face the baffled Broghill and meet his fate, "thereupon he was immediately hung." This story of rare courage is fit to be told with that of Regulus. (Continued Next Week.) |