Show 1 IN AND ABOUT GURKi A City Nearly as Dfrty as New York POETRIDDEN SPOTS IN ERIN Places Just as Beautiful at KILJarney That Have Not Been Contaminated with Surplus Rhyme and Herded Tourists By CHARLES BATTELL LOOMIS Klllarnoy Ireland Thoy told me hat Cork was a very dirty city They oven said It was filthy and they said It In such a way as to reflect on Irishmen Irish-men In general and Corkonlans In particular Icular Yes they said that Cork was a dirty city and so I found Italmost as dirty as Now York This may sound like a strong statement but I mean It When I arrived In Cork I saw a hill and made for It at once because after railway travel there Is nothing that so takes the kinks out of a fellows logs as a walk up a stiff hill And anyhow any-how I was on a walking tour I arrived at the top about sunset On reading thta sentence over I find that It sounds as If the hill was an all day Journey but It was only a matter of a few squares and when I started the sun had long since made up Its mind to set In Ireland tho sun takes on Irish was and Is Just a llttlo dilatory It always means to set and It always does set In time to avoid being out In ho dark but Its nu unconscionably long time a dying At the summit of the hill I saw a church steeple that appealed to my esthetic sense and I asked a little boy what church It was Shandon churrch Birr said ho with tho rapid and undulating utterance utter-ance of tho Corkonlan Where the bells are said I Yes said he smiling And over beyont Is tho Lee The pleasant waters of tho river Lee I quoted at him and ho smiled again Probably every traveler who goes to Cork quotes the lovely old hit of doggerel but the Corkonlan smiles and smiles The river Lee runs through tho center cen-ter of Cork and at evening It Is a favorite place for fishing also for learning to swim on dry land The fishermen seem to fish for the love of casting and the little boys swim on tho pavementtwo pursuits as useless as they are pleasant Over the bridge the fishermen leaned and cast their lines In anything but pleasant pleas-ant placesfor the river Is malodorous malodor-ous and the little boys stood on benches and dived to the pavement where they spat and then went through the motions of swimming There were dozens of tho little boys and most of them seemed to be Ui others oth-ers Some of them wore quite expert In diving backward and all of them were dirty but they seemed to be happy hap-py I could not help thinking how soon tho Celtic mind begins to use symbols sym-bols for It was easy to see that when the boys spat It signified a watering placo to them I dare say they were breaking a city ordinance In spitting and If they knew that they were that much happier stolen sweets are tho sweetest During the tlmo I watched the setting set-ting sun which was still at It and by tho way performed some lovely variations on a simple color scheme In tho skynot even an eel was caught but tho fishermen cast under the bridge lot their bait float down the un pleasant Vaters and drew In their lines again and again = muto examples ex-amples of a patience that one does not associate with Ireland > At last I left them and started out to find Shandon church which seemed seem-ed but a few squares away My pathway led through time slums and up a hill so steep that I hope horses only use It ns a means of descent de-scent I passed one fireside where the folks looked cosy and happy and warm It was a summer evening but chilly amid the place Into which I looked was a shop for tho sale of coal Shoemakers children are generally barefooted but these pcpplo were burlng their own coal and tho mother moth-er and the dIrty children sprawled around the store or homo in a shadow casting Way that would havo delighted delight-ed Mynheer Hembrandt If ho had passed by I was struck with the population of Cork It was most of it on the sidewalk side-walk and nearly all of it was under 10 Pretty faces too among them and happy looking I think that sympathy sym-pathy would have been wasted on them They had so much more room than they would have In Now York and they were not any dirtier than New Yorkers of tho same class After I hud reached tho top of the hill I turned and looked for Shandon church and It was gone I asked a boy what had become of It and ho told mo that in following my winding way through the convolutions known as streets I had gotten as far from tho church as I could In tho time Ho told mo pleasantly just how to go to get to the church and It Involved going to the foot of tho hill and beginning be-ginning again I asked a number of times after that and always got courteous but rapid answers Tho Irish are great talkers but the Corkonlan could handicap hand-icap himself with a mornings silence and beat his brothers from other counties coun-ties before evening At last I came on tho church pass I Its quaint and curious I to quote three r ot Poos words statues of a green coated boy and girl 1 asked a man when the bells began be-gan to ring for I had been told that they only rang ut night > Every quarrtor of an hour slrr hoyll bo ringing in a couple of minutes min-utes slrr Ono likes to Indulge In a bit of ontlmont sometimes and I stood and waited to hear the bells of Shandon that sound BO grand on tho pleasant waters of tho river Leo I had loft Uio Leo to tho fishermen and tho make believe swimmers but tho bolls would sound sweotly hero under tho tower that hold them A minute passed and then another and then I heard musicmusic that called forth old memories of days long since dead How it pealed out Its do light on tho Icy air of night And how well I know tho tune Down Where tho Wurzburger Flows No it was not the chimes but a nurse In the hospital at a piano Before Be-fore sho had finished Shandon bells began but what they played did not blend with what she sang and I wonton wont-on my way thinking on tho potency of music I passed on down whoro tho RIver Leo flowed and the fishermen wero still fishing but tho little boys bad tired f swimming Two signs mot uio at nearly every corner One road James J > Murphy Co and the other Doamlsh Crawford or Crawford Beamish I forgot which Both marked the places of publicans and sinners I doubt not and both wore brewers names The publicans own name i novel appeared but these names wore omnipresent Again I thought of Shandon Dolls and the romantic song Down Whore the Wurzhurger Flows and leaving tho Lee still flowing I sought my hotel ho-tel I would like to mako a revolutionary revolution-ary statement that Is more often thought than uttered but boforo I make It I would like to say that there arc two classes of travelers those who think thero Is nothing In Europe that compares with similar things in America and those who think there Is nothing In America that can hold a candlo to similar things In Europe I hope I belong to neither class If I mistake not I am a Pharisee and thank my stars that I am not us other men arc Most of us are Pharisees but few will admit it I began being a Pharisee when I was a small child and that Is the tlmo that most people begin I kept It up In this I amlike tho multitude Having thus stated my position lot me go on to say that I am perfectly willing to admit that this or that bit of scenery In Franco or Switzerland or England or Ireland lays over anything any-thing of the sort I evOr saw In America Ameri-ca If I think it does and I am equally willing to say that America has almost al-most unknown bits that aro far better bet-ter than admired and poetridden places in Europe Twin Lakes In Connecticut Is one of thorn and Klllarney IB a poet ridden place Why even In Ireland there are places Just as lovely as Klllarney but they have not been written up and so no ono goes to visit them I felt that one of the worst things about Klllarney was tho American sightseer and I camo away soon Cooks Tourists havo novel hoard of Twin Lakes thank fortune and it will bo some time before they the lakes aro spoiled The Lakes of Klllarney are so beautiful beau-tiful that they are worthy of tho pen of a poet but the pen of a poet does not make any lake more beautiful and I am quarreling because so many people peo-ple refuse to believe tho evidence of their own senses and take their natural beauties at the say so of another an-other There Is a tower going up In New York at present a tower that with the I exception of tho Eiffel Tower is tho I tallest on earth Many persons look at it reflect that its is a skyscraper and then dismiss It as therefore hideous But it Is really real-ly very beautiful and seen from certain cer-tain vantage points It Is architecturally architectural-ly ono of tho glories of New York If It over gains a reputation for beauty you will find persons raving over It whq to day class It among the hideous skyscrapers A hun lCd years ago there were some skyscrapers in Switzerland and they wero thought to bo hideous After Aft-er awhile a man wjth a poets eyes and a courageous tonguo visited them and ho said tho Alps are beautiful When their reputation for beauty was established travelers left the region re-gion round about tho Hocklos to go and rave over the beauties of Switzerland Switz-erland Thats all Copyright 1S07 by W O Chapman |