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Show mmm ami f f J ' 1 i r - . K' l ; , '1 , I i . :. .: . . - . ! , y ' :-N'. ": : . V. -; -VJ:--," -'e ' : - ;. A i ', . ' . - - : : ., ..;.'. - ":- " ' . - " , ., ." . " . ; - ;: ' ,v-' ' .' .-, - r - .: :. - - Blarney Castle. WIHrNF.YER you make the trip out from Cork, Ireland, to I'.larney Castle, be sure to turn a cold shoulder up on the modern tramway and upon the motor car. The only way to go is by the "outside car," or jaunting oar, for this is so entirely Irish. Up you will clamber to the rather rickety step of the car, thence to the swinging platform for the feet, upon up-on which you must maneuver in some way to tunmbout and take your seat. 1'robiibly you and your neighbor if you have one on your side of the car will laugh a great deal and clutch each other excitedly; if you have the seat to yourself, you must curl one knee up before you, in somewhat the way a woman does in riding sidesaddie, brace yourself against the iron end to the seat and cling tightly. There's a knack in riding on an outside car which it needs a little time to acquire. ' I'.ut, no matter, you are off swinging around corners and jolting over the cobblestones, through the city, across a river and out into the sweet greeu valley of the Lea which leads to the village of Blarney. If it Is spring, the trees are all daintily, fluflily pale green, the yellow primroses are beginning begin-ning to show themselves and, perhaps, there is here and there a hedge of brilliant bril-liant golden gorse. Birds are singing all around you, too, and the river ripples rip-ples gently over its stones; but the probabilities are that your driver will talk so much that you will not hear the music of the river. He will tell you all about how It was Cormac MaeCarthy, back In the 'fifteenth 'fif-teenth century, who built Blarney castle; cas-tle; and how, although the place now belongs to a local landowner, all the MucCarthys of the countryside still feel that they own the place and are certain that it will one day come back into the hands of the family. Every MaeCarthy who plows a field, within sight of the old jagged keep of Blarney Blar-ney castle, looks up at it with pride and a sense of rightful ownership. Kissing the Blarney Stone. Of course, everyone knows that he who kisses the Blarney stone is supposed sup-posed to gain the gift of eloquence. The legend goes that the original Cormac Cor-mac McCarthy the Strong one day rescued res-cued a woman from the lake; and this woman was so grateful that she offered, of-fered, by way of showing her thanks, to give Cormac a golden tongue. But, she made one condition ; iu order to get it, he must kiss a particular stone, five feet below the top of the parapet of Blarney Castle. Naturally, Cormac leaped up the winding steps of the keep, two steps at a time, ran around the path which encircled the inner court, lowered himself to where he could reach the stone which the woman wom-an had indicated, and hastily kissed It. Presumably he was afterwards possessed pos-sessed of marvelous eloquence, and this Is the reason why all other visitors to Blarney have wanted to kiss that stone, too if they are both daring and steady-headed. For this feat is not altogether al-together an easy one. But, by this time, your driver has put you down by the little Blarney railway station, bidding you cross the (racks and take a path through the woods, close by a tiny stream. In a few moments you come out into an open field, where, sure enough, a MaeCarthy Mae-Carthy Is hoeing the rows ; and there, before you, looms the great keep of Blarney Castle. The keep is practically practi-cally all that remains today, though around its foot there huddle numerous numer-ous crumbling walls and archways, which show that there were other buildings, too. Not far away is Blar-ijey Blar-ijey Lake, about which the man hoeing the rows tells you a curious story. "Two 0' the gentry," he is saying, "war one while Jlst afther discussin' how deep was Blarney Lake. Wan o' thlm said it was bottomless, an' the other wan he allowed how that was noways possible ai all. So they agreed they'd sind down two "divers. This thing they done prisintly, the gentry tiiimselves a-standin' by the lakeside and awatchin'. Down wiut them divers, div-ers, but they niver come up at all; and, though the gentry kipt a-watchln' and a-waitin", niver did they see thira divers again. But, afther eight weeks it was, they had a letter from thim, and they was in Australia. They were so '" Up on the Castle. And so you leave the MaeCarthy, so full of wonderful and mysterious tales, and wend your way to the castle. cas-tle. You take your time climbing the spiral, uneven stone steps of the keep, for they are very steep and long. But, at last, you reach the top and stop to look east, w est, north 'and south, at the charming views;; little green and brown fields, marked off by hedges, dark clumps of woodland, here and there a sparkling blue lake or a dazzling daz-zling clump of gorse. But you soon hear stilled shrieks and exclamations from the other side of the parapet, so you make your way to the spot. Yes, (here someone is about to kiss the Blarney stone. A big stalwart youth is lying down upon his back, his head towards a square opening in the outer out-er Willi of the parapet; another strong youth, perhaps two of them, sit down upon bis feet, so as to hold them firmly. firm-ly. Then the seeker after eloquence grasps an iron bar, placed in position for this purpose, swings himself down through the opening in the parapet referred re-ferred to, pulls himself up again on the outside, arid just manages to kiss the surface of the Blarney Stone ; then, being be-ing strong and lithe, he jerks his head hack in again and suddenly he is again sitting up on the floor of the parapet and the others boys are letting go of his feet. It wasn't so hard to do after all, you think; at least, not If you are a strong young boy who does not mind looking down all those giddy feet to the trees growing against the foot of the keep. But, doubtless, you are wise enough to content yourself with watching watch-ing others kiss the Blarney Stone and with buying a post card showing the famous stone, with its Latin inscription, inscrip-tion, "Cormac MaeCarthy Fortis Me Fieri Fecit, A. D. 14415," which, translated trans-lated in Irish, means "Cormac Macarthy, bould as bricks, Made me in Fourteen Forty-six." Really, ,you know, It does not pay to go to the trouble of kissing the stone, for it may even not be the identical one which Cormac MaeCarthy the Strong knew. Many people insist that that stone was long ago removed from its position, that this is not the genuine stone at all; at any rate, It seems that the stone once fell from its place. Probably it is as well to acquire ac-quire eloquence in some other way. |